Herein, the synthesis and application of copper-incorporated sulfated zirconium oxide supported on CuFe2O4 NPs (CuFe2O4@SiO2@ZrO2/SO4 2-/Cu NPs) as a novel Lewis/Brønsted acid nanocatalyst were studied for the Sonogashira C-C cross-coupling reaction. The fabricated CuFe2O4@SiO2@ZrO2/SO4 2-/Cu catalyst exhibited efficient activity for a large variety of aryl iodides/bromides and, most importantly, aryl chlorides in water and in the presence of NaOH as a base in short reaction times. The catalyst was fully characterized by FTIR, TG-DTG, VSM, XRD, EDX, FE-SEM and TEM analyses. A synergetic effect could be considered to have arisen from the various Lewis acid and Brønsted acid sites present in the catalyst. The efficient incorporation of copper into zirconia provided a robust highly stable hybrid, which prevented any metal leaching, whether from the magnetite moiety and/or Cu sites in the reaction mixture. Moreover, the catalyst was successfully recovered from the mixture by a simple external magnet and reused for at least 9 consecutive runs. Zero metal leaching, stability, consistency with a variety of substrates, fast performance, cost-effectiveness, environmental friendliness, and preparation with accessible and cheap materials are some of the advantages and highlights of the current protocol.
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