The reaction of atomic oxygen with methanethiol. A theoretical study of the structures and the potential energy surface.

Ab initio calculations at the Hartree-Fock, MP2 and MP4 levels were performed to find structures of the equilibrium and transition states and the reaction energies and energies of activation of several competing reaction pathways of O (3P)+CH3SH. A 6-31G* basis set was used in all calculations. The mechanism of hydrogen atom abstraction from the S-H group methanethiol was found to be very competitive with the oxygen atom addition to the sulfur atom.