Applications of tritium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in kinetic and labelling studies.

A method has been developed for studying parallel detritiation reactions. Tritium nmr spectroscopy was used in conjunction with standard computing procedures to provide a reliable analysis of the kinetic data , The technique was applied to a number of simple carbon acids, tritiated at two distinct sites in each molecule, and also to a group of C(3)-substituted camphor derivatives, tritiated only at C(3) but possessing unlike tritium atoms as a result of the rigid stereochemistry of the camphor skeleton. The potential of the method for the case of three or more parallel reactions is discussed. Investigations were made into the problem of deuteriating adamantane and its derivatives. Various homogeneous and heterogeneous exchange catalysts were used,and the varying success of these is reported, It has been shown that [3]H nmr spectroscopy is a sensitive enough technique to be useful in monitoring photochemical tritiations, even when these are low-yield reactions. Another asset of this technique is the ease of analysis compared with other spectroscopic methods. An example exemplifying this was provided by the facile identification of the products of gas tritiation of a dienone system