Electrochemical Deoxygenative Hydrogenation and Deuteration of Aldehydes/Ketones by Protic Acids in Water

Abstract We report herein a modified Clemmensen reduction. When reacted with aqueous H(D)Cl in an undivided cell, aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and ketones undergo deoxygenative hydrogenation and deuterization to give hydrocarbons and deuterocarbons. The general features of this transformation are: 1) H + /D + as the sources of H/D; 2) mild reaction conditions (room temperature, open flask, CH 3 CN and water as cosolvent); 3) easily scaled‐up to 100 grams. A series of D‐labeled drugs were synthesized by this method. magnified image