Deuterated DMSO is produced by heating DMSO in heavy water (D2O) with a basic catalyst such as calcium oxide. The reaction does not give complete conversion to the d6 product, and the water produced must be removed and replaced with D2O several times to drive the equilibrium to the fully deuterated product.[1]
Applications
NMR spectroscopy
13C NMR Spectrum of DMSO-d6
DMSO is a good solvent for many organic compounds. Because deuterated DMSO does not contain any 1</1H atoms, it produces no peaks in 1H-NMR and as a result is commonly used as a solvent for NMR experiments.[2] Commercially available deuteriated DMSO is not isotopically pure. The residual DMSO-d5 produces a 1H-NMR signal observed at 2.50 ppm, which appears as a quintet (JHD=1.9Hz). In 13C-NMR, the chemical shift of DMSO-d6 is 39.52 ppm, and appears as a septet.[3]
Trideuteromethyl donor
Deuterated DMSO is used as a reagent for the introduction of a trideuteromethyl group (CD3) onto organic structures.[4]
References
↑ & Hampel, Bruno"Process for the production of hexadeuterodimethyl sulfoxide" DE patent application 1171422B, published 1964-06-04, assigned to E. Merck A.G.
↑Gottlieb, Hugo E.; Kotlyar, Vadim; Nudelman, Abraham (17 October 1997). "NMR Chemical Shifts of Common Laboratory Solvents as Trace Impurities" (in en). The Journal of Organic Chemistry (Washington, D.C., USA: American Chemical Society) 62 (21): 7512–7515. doi:10.1021/jo971176v. PMID11671879.