Hydrogen-deuterium exchange in spiro cyclic ketones: a search for intramolecular catalysis

The synthesis and characterization of 1'-hydroxy-3',3'-dimethylspiro[cyclohexane-1,2'-indan]-4-one (17b), 1'-amino-3',3'-dimethylspiro[cyclohexane-1,2'-indan]4-one (6a), 1'-N,N-dimethylamino-3',3'-dimethylspiro[cyclohexane-1,2'-indan]-4-one (6c) and 1'-[N-ethyl-α(d2)-amino]-3'-3'-dimethylspiro[cyclohexane-1,2'-indan]-4-one (6b) are described. The hydrogen-deuterium exchange reactions of aminoketones 6b and 6c with CH3OD are too fast to be followed by the mass spectrometric methodology. However, the H/D exchange between hydroxyketone 17b and CH3OD is shown to be intramolecularly catalyzed under both basic and neutral conditions. The rate constant for the exchange of C(3)-axial-H in 17b is 35 times greater than the rate constant for the exchange of an axial α-H in 4-t-butylcyclohexanone