“…[6] Esterification reactions in the absence of activators are not fully understood and have limited substrate scope (aromatic acid chlorides or compounds with a-acidic hydrogens are not used); this may be attributed to a considerable excess of the required acyl donor. [7] These limitations stimulated efforts to develop activators for improving the reactivity, among the most common are Brønsted acids (e.g., HCl, [8] p-TsOH [9] ) and Lewis acids (e.g., CeCl 3 , [10] MgBr 2 , [11] ZrCl 4 , [12] Sc(OTf) 3 , [13] LiClO 4 , [14] Mg(ClO 4 ) 2 [15] ). These acids cannot be used in the presence of acid-sensitive substrates, thus reducing their real usefulness.…”