Selective and Scalable Deuteration of Heteroarenes Using Nickel-Based Nanoparticles†

Deuterium labelling possesses wide applications in pharmaceuticals, chemical science and materials science. Development of efficient methodologies for the synthesis of deuterium labelled compounds, especially hydrogen isotope exchange (HIE), continued to receive an impressive attention over the years. Herein, we developed a nitrogen doped nano-scale nickel catalyst for deuterium incorporation of a variety of nitrogen heterocycles using D₂O as the isotope source. The usefulness of this approach has been demonstrated by 10 g-scale for complex pharmaceuticals. This methodology represents a practical and scalable deuteration and the air- and water-stable nanocatalyst enables efficient labelling in a straightforward manner.