Esterification of Tertiary Amides by Alcohols Through C−N Bond Cleavage over CeO₂

CeO₂ has been found to promote ester forming alcoholysis reactions of tertiary amides. The present catalytic system is operationally simple, recyclable, and it does not require additives. The esterification process displays a wide substrate scope (>45 examples; up to 93 % isolated yield). Results of a density functional theory (DFT) study combined with in situ FT-IR observations indicate that the process proceeds through rate limiting addition of a CeO₂ lattice oxygen to the carbonyl group of the adsorbed acetamide species with energy barrier of 17.0 kcal/mol. This value matches well with experimental value (17.9 kcal/mol) obtained from analysis of the Arrhenius plot. Further studies by in situ FT-IR and temperature programmed desorption using probe molecules demonstrate that both acidic and basic properties are important, and consequently, CeO₂ showed the best performance for the C−N bond cleavage reaction.