Preparation of fully deuterated fatty acids by simple method

Abstract

Abstract An economical, simple, efficient system of deuterating saturated fatty acids at atmospheric pressure has been developed. Exchange is carried out between fatty acids and deuterium gas over palladium on charcoal catalyst at 195 C. The method was applied to even membered fatty acids containing from 6–14 carbon atoms. The method yielded perdeuterated fatty acids of high isotopic purity with no evidence of other reaction products.