Direct Esterification of Alkylcarbamic Acids with Alcohols over CeO Catalyst.

Alkylcarbamic acids, which are easily produced via chemical absorption of CO into amines, have a great potential to be substrates for producing value-added chemicals. In this research, the esterification of various alkylcarbamic acids with alcohols into alkyl N-alkylcarbamates was demonstrated by using a heterogeneous catalyst as well as the corresponding amine additives. In the model reaction, the esterification of benzylcarbamic acid (BZA-CA) and methanol (MeOH), the target product of methyl N-benzylcarbamate was obtained in 64 % CO -based yield at 413 K in 12 h over a CeO catalyst, which also exhibited good reusability.