Base‐Catalyzed Selective Deuteration of Alkynes

Abstract Deuteration of organic molecules has gained considerable importance in medicinal chemistry. A mild concept of inducing 2 H isotope stoichiometrically into terminal alkynes was developed in KOH‐DMSO‐d 6 medium. The four pairs of substrate scopes, namely aromatic, aliphatic, dialkynes, and alcohol/amine‐substituted alkyne were readily switchable from hydrogen to deuterium. Mild reaction condition, no requirement of column chromatography; environment‐friendly nature of the protocol increases the synthetic utility of the developed chemistry. The procedure avoids the use of expensive transition‐metal catalysts and should find attention in academia as well as in pharmaceuticals.