The mechanisms about the water’s and methanol’s effects on the alcoholysis of N-benzyl-3-oxo-β-sultam together with their differences have been studied by using density func- tional theory at the B3LYP/6-31G＊ level. The results, in comparison with a previous study on the relative reaction without the assistance of water and methanol, show that the added water or methanol can remarkably reduce the energy barrier of alcoholysis reaction of N-benzyl-3-oxo- β-sultam and the most favorite pathway is the breaking of C–N bond instead of S–N. It is also found that the reaction energy barrier of methanol-assisted alcoholysis is a little higher than that of the water-assisted one.
The hydrolysis of 1,2-thiazetidine 1,1-dioxide has been studied by using ab initio and density functional theory at HF/6-31G*, MP2/6-31G* and B3LYP/6-31G* levels, showing there exist two potential theoretical products. One is N-ethyl amino-methyl sulfonate (P1) in which breaking of bond S–C is concerted, the other is 2-taurine methyl ester (P2) which involves two reaction processes with two different mechanisms: concerted and stepwise. There are two pathways of a and b in stepwise, and the former is the lowest in energy barrier in the hydrolysis of 1,2-thiazetidine 1,1-dioxide. The energy barriers of water-assisted hydrolysis of 1,2-thiazetidine 1,1-dioxide are obviously lower than those of no-water-assisted hydrolysis. Solvent effects have been considered by means of a polarizable continuum model (PCM).
