In this work, Mo-MCM-41, Zr-MCM-41, Sn-MCM-41 and Ti-MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves were successfully synthesized via hydrothermal synthesis. An acidic group (SO42-, PTSA etc.) was introduced into the mesoporous molecular sieves to obtain modified mesoporous molecular sieve catalysts. The XRD, N-2 absorption-desorption isotherms, FT-IR and Py-IR results reveal that PTSA/ZrO2/Mo-MCM-41 had a mesoporous molecular sieve structure containing a large number of acidic centers. The PTSA/ZrO2/Mo-MCM-41 catalyst illustrated superior catalytic performance for synthesis of rosin methyl ester and the esterification rate was 88.2% under the optimized conditions. At the same time, the PTSA/ZrO2/Mo-MCM-41 catalyst has excellent stability and can be recycled and reused with negligible loss in activity over six cycles. [GRAPHICS] .