Kinetic and Mechanistic Studies of the Deuterium Exchange in Classical Keto−Enol Tautomeric Equilibrium Reactions

An extension of the classic keto−enol tautomerization of β-dicarbonyl compounds into a kinetic analysis of deuterium exchange is presented. It is shown that acetylacetone and ethyl acetoacetate undergo nearly complete deuterium exchange of the α-methylene carbon when dissolved in methanol- d 4 . The extent of deuteration may be monitored via NMR spectroscopy as a function of time. A mechanism for deuterium exchange is presented and shown to be consistent with a consecutive first-order process. The data for acetylacetone are consistent with steady-state kinetics, whereas those of ethyl acetoacetate illustrate nonsteady-state behavior, offering an accessible example where students might collect and analyze real data to examine the applicability of the steady-state approximation.