中文摘要：

有机羧酸酯是重要的化工产品和药物中间体。传统生产工艺是用浓硫酸作催化剂的醇酸酯化反应，开发环境友好的高效酯化反应催化剂替代传统催化剂成为近年的研究热点之一。本文介绍了近年醇酸酯化反应各种催化体系的研究进展，对分子筛、杂多酸、固体超强酸、树脂等多相催化剂和离子型有机金属化合物、有机（酸）与无机盐等催化剂作了综述，对酸性离子液体在酯化反应中兼作溶剂和催化剂的应用研究进展进行了重点评述，并对其今后的研究方向进行了展望。

英文摘要：

Organic esters are important products and intermediates in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Recently, developing environment-friendly catalysts for esterification to replace sulfuric acid which was used as catalyst in traditional esterification process has attracted much attention. The recent development of catalysts system for direct esterification of different alcohols with acids was introduced in this paper. The research and application of heterogeneous catalysts, such as zeolites, supported heteropolyacid, solid super acid and sulfonic resin catalysts; ionic organomet al compounds, organic acid and inorganic salt in esterification were reviewed. Also the application and study progress about novel acidic ionic liquids, which was used as solvent and catalyst in esterification, was described in detail. The study prospect of catalysts system for esterification was discussed as well.