The N-arylation of indoles with a variety of aryl bromides is reported using copper oxide nanoparticles as a heterogeneous catalyst. These copper oxide nanoparticles, which were produced in a novel, facile, and scalable fashion via an electrospinning technique, resulted in an excellent product yield under mild conditions. Moreover, the catalyst was easily recovered and reused several times without significant loss of activity. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.