Phenols are attractive starting materials due to their ready availability. Herein, we developed a novel method on palladium-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of phenols. By using commercially available Pd(OAc)(2) and PtBu center dot HBF4 as the catalyst system and aryl triflates as triflyl source to activate the other phenol, various carboxylic acid esters were prepared in moderate to good yields via Tf exchange and then O-Tf bond cleavage. Notably, phenols generated from aryl triflates after Tf transfer or other additional aliphatic alcohols can all be employed as nucleophiles to synthesize the corresponding esters. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.