Mesoporous, ligand free Cu-Fe solid catalyst mediated CS cross coupling of thiols with aryl halides

•C–S coupling of aryl halides and thiols.•Mesoporous Cu-Fe catalyst synthesis.•Ligand free C–S coupling under mild reaction conditions.•Catalytically active CuO:Fe2O3 phase.•XRD, XPS and BET characterization of Cu-Fe HT catalysts. Solid catalyst derived from Cu-Fe hydrotalcite was demonstrated to be a novel, ligandless, efficient and environmentally greener catalyst for the synthesis of diaryl sulfurs from the C–S cross coupling reaction of substituted thiols with different aryl halides. This catalyst has shown higher product yield in the presence of dimethylformamide (as a solvent) and K2CO3 (as a base) at 120°C. Influence of different solvents and bases on the product yield has also been investigated. The catalyst can be easily separated from the reaction mixture, simply by filtration and reused several times without a significant loss of its activity. The catalyst has been fully characterized for its surface and bulk properties and the mesoporous CuO:Fe2O3 phase was attributed for its catalytic activity towards S-arylation reactions.