The invention relates to a preparation method of (S)-4-hydroxy-2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamide. The preparation method comprises the following steps of: taking
glycine ethyl ester hydrochloride and ethyl-(S)-4-halo-3-hydroxy-butanoate as raw materials, reacting in an
alcohol solvent under alkaline conditions, washing with an inorganic
alcohol, concentrating, extracting, separating, and introducing
ammonia water to get a crude product of the (S)-4-hydroxy-2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamide; and performing purification treatment on the crude product, wherein the
glycine ethyl ester hydrochloride firstly needs to adopt ethyl
ether and
ammonia gas to dissociate so as to get
glycine ethyl ester. The main raw materials adopted in the preparation method disclosed by the invention are the ethyl-(S)-4-halo-3-hydroxy-butanoate and the
glycine ethyl ester hydrochloride, and the raw materials are low in price, easy to obtain, environment-friendly and
pollution-free; and according to the preparation method disclosed by the invention, dissociation treatment is firstly performed on the
glycine ethyl ester hydrochloride, thus the using quantity of the materials in the reaction is effectively reduced, the cost is lowered, and a positive role is simultaneously played for the reaction yield. (S)-
oxiracetam prepared by the preparation method disclosed by the invention has low cost, high yield which is as high as 36% and mild
reaction conditions, and is conductive to industrialized large-scale production, and the HPLC (high-performance liquid
chromatography) purity of the prepared (S)-
oxiracetam product is above 98.5%.