A novel cerium (III) salt of Dawson type tungstophosphoric acid (Ce

2

P

2

W

18

O

62

·16H

2

O) was prepared by doping cerous nitrate in H

6

P

2

W

18

O

62

·13H

2

O powder and characterized by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analyses (TG/DTA)

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)

X-ray powder diffraction (XRD)

pyridine infrared spectroscopy (Py-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Its catalytic activity was evaluated by the probe reaction of synthesis of n-butyl acetate with acetic acid and n-butanol. The effects of various parameters such as molar ratio of n-butanol to acetic acid

reaction temperature

reaction time

and catalyst amount have been studied by single factor experiment. The results show that Ce

2

P

2

W

18

O

62

·16H

2

O behaved as an excellent heterogeneous catalyst in the synthesis of n-butyl acetate. The optimum synthetic conditions were determined as follows:molar ratio of n-butanol to acetic acid at 2.0:1.0

mass of the catalyst being 1.44% of the total reaction mixture

reaction temperature of 120 ℃ and reaction

time of 150 min. Under above conditions

the conversion of acetic acid was above 97.8％. The selectivity of n-butyl acetate based on acetic acid was

in all cases

nearly 100%. The catalysts could be recycled and still exhibited high catalytic activity with 90.4% conversion after five cycles of reaction. It was found by means of TG-DTA and Py-IR that the catalyst deactivation was due to the adsorption of a complex of by-product on the active sites on catalysts surface or the catalyst loss in its separation from the products. Compared with using sulfuric acid as catalyst

the present procedure with Ce

2

P

2

W

18

O

62

·16H

2

O is a green productive technology due to simple process

higher yield

catalyst recycling and no corrosion for the production facilities.