A convenient, inexpensive and effective route for the preparation of a Cu2O–CuO–Cu–C nanocomposite is
described here by applying Cu(II) as a source of copper. Characterization of the nanocomposite was
performed with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission
electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy
(FE-SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
Analysis of the data showed that the particles of the nanocomposite are uniformly distributed and show
high catalytic activity in the cross-coupling of sodium azide with various aryl iodides and bromides. This
nanocomposite has a high level of performance, and even led to the synthesis of the products at room
temperature. In addition, this is the first report of the synthesis of aryl azides under both base- and
ligand-free conditions. For the first time, both ligand- and base-free conditions were applied for the
synthesis of aryl azides, which implies exceptional performance of the Cu2O–CuO–Cu–C
nanocomposite. Simultaneous removal of the base and ligand in a green solvent is the main advantage
of this reaction. Unfortunately, aryl bromides and aryl iodides with electron-withdrawing functional
groups in their scaffold did not give the desired aryl azides.