Synthesis of icosadeuterio-benzopinacol (benzopinacol-d20)

This work reports on synthesis of high yield (92%) of isosadeuterio-benzopinacol (benzopinacol-d20) via photo-reductive dimerization of benzophenone-d10. The latter compound was obtained using an improved method to achieve a material with high isotopic purity (> 99%). This material can be served for calibration of Mass spectrometric assays. In this study, it was also observed that benzophenone-d10 reacts faster than its natural abundance counterpart. However, elucidating the origin of this phenomenon will require additional work.