On account of the steric hindrance effect of tert -butyl alcohol, tert-butyl acetate is usually synthesized via acylation and its catalyst is requested strictly .Tert -butyl acetate was afforded from tert -butyl alcohol and   acetic anhydride in the presence of cerous chloride and the catalytic activity of the catalyst was studied.Some factors, which would influence the yield of the product , such as reaction time , reaction temperature, catalyst dosage and the optimum mole ratio of reactants and so on , were discussed .The results show that cerous chlo ride has a better catalytic activity for the acylation of tert -butyl alcohol and acetic anhydride .The study on optimization of reaction conditions indicates that the optimal conditions of the acylation are as following the mole ratio of acetic anhy dride to tert -butyl alcohol to cerous chloride is 1 .5∶1∶0.004; reflux time is 120 minutes ;and the yield of tert -butyl acetate is 82 .60 %.Refractive index and infrared spectrometry show that the product is pure .