Potassium thioacetate is an organosulfur compound and a salt with the formula CH3COS−K+.

This white, water-soluble solid is used as a reagent for preparing thioacetate esters and other derivatives.

[1] Potassium thioacetate, which is commercially available, can be prepared by combining acetyl chloride and potassium hydrogen sulfide: It arises also by the neutralization of thioacetic acid with potassium hydroxide.

In a common application, potassium thioacetate is combined with alkylating agents to give thioacetate esters (X = halide): Hydrolysis of these esters affords thiols: The thioacetate esters can also be cleaved with methanethiol in the presence of stoichiometric base, as illustrated in the preparation of pent-4-yne-1-thiol:[2]