A simple and green synthesis of diaryl sulfides catalyzed by an MCM-41-immobilized copper(I) complex in neat water

The heterogeneous carbon–sulfur bond formation reaction of aryl iodides with potassium thiocyanate was achieved in neat water at 130 °C by using 5 mol% MCM-41-immobilized bidentate nitrogen/CuCl complex [MCM-41-2N–CuCl] as catalyst and Cs2CO3 as base, yielding a variety of diaryl sulfides in moderate to high yields. This heterogeneous copper catalyst can be easily prepared by a simple two-step procedure from commercially available and cheap reagents and recovered by a simple filtration and reused for 10 cycles without loss of catalytic activity.