“…Since then steric hindrance has been regarded as one of the most important factors leading to increased deuterium KIEs. [6][7][8] In further studies, even though they were designed to find an increase in the KIE due to steric hindrance, it was found that steric hindrance in both the base and C-acid may actually reduce the KIE. 9,10 However, bulky substituents not only cause repulsive interactions in the transition state, they can also change other parameters influencing the KIE, such as ∆GЊ, so the discussion of steric effects is doomed to be difficult.…”