New deuterated oligo(ethylene glycol) building blocks and their use in the preparation of surface active lipids possessing labeled hydrophilic tethers

For the introduction of additional analysis protocols of tethered molecules, a method is presented to prepare functionalized, deuterated oligo(ethylene glycols) from ethylene glycol-d4. Partial oligomerization of ethylene glycol-d4 and conversion to ditosylates is accompanied by coupling reactions to prepare doubly benzyl protected oligo(ethylene glycols) with two to five repeating units. The tetramer bearing 16 deuteria was elaborated at both ends to eventually prepare 2,3-di-O-phytanyl-sn-glycerol-1-tetraethylene glycol-d,l-alpha-lipoic acid ester (DPTL), which bears a fully deuterated tetra(ethylene glycol) spacer group. Through linking of functionalized components, an analogue of DPTL possessing an octa(ethylene glycol) spacer group was prepared, both in deuterated and unlabeled form.