Abstract: Hydrolysis of 2-methylene-l, 3-dithiolane (1) consists of three reversible, consecutive reactions, involving 2-methyl-l, 3-dithiolan-2-ylium ion (2) and 2-hydroxy-2- methyl-l, 3-dithiolane (3) as intermediates. Kinetic examinations of reactions of 1 as well as the isolated salts of 2 and the product S-(2-mercaptoethyl) thioacetate (4) provided the rate constants for all the six individual steps of the hydrolysis. Above pH 3, the first protonation ...
