An efficient and general method for the synthesis of stable isotope deuterium labeled phthalate esters.

An efficient and general synthetic route of deuterium-labeled phthalate esters is described with high isotopic enrichment and excellent chemical purities using inexpensive and readily available o-xylene-D10 as labeled starting material. The structures and isotope-abundance were confirmed via 1 H NMR and mass spectrometry. These deuterium labeled phthalate esters can be used as analytical reference standards for the detection of plasticizer residues in soil, water, food, plastic products, etc.