The Isotopic Hydrogen Exchange between Propene and Deuterium Oxide Catalyzed by Nickel Powder

Deuterium exchange between propene and deuterium oxide has been found to occur at room temperature successively on a nickel catalyst, but about six times more easily at the vinyl hydrogen than at the methyl hydrogen at room temperature, although this finding is not concordant with the expectation derived from the scission energy of the bonds concerned and although it is also different from the easier exchangeability of the methyl hydrogen in the similar exchange reaction of paraxylene. The discrepancy has been explained by assuming the classical chemisorbed species of propene as an intermediate, i. e., a state of propene which forms bonds between nickel atoms and the C=C group, besides the formation of adsorbed allyl type species on nickel.