Mesoporous Cu-Pd ferrites were prepared by using MCM-41 and SBA-15 mesoporous molecular sieves as hard templates and well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ICP-atomic emission spectroscopy, N-2 adsorption-desorption and X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy (XPS). Compared with samples prepared by the sol gel auto-combustion methods, the as-prepared mesoporous ferrites have shown uniform pore size and much higher specific surface areas. The samples showed a remarkably high activity in connection with the Suzuki coupling reaction, especially Cu0.99Pd0.01Fe2O4 prepared by using MCM-41 as template obtained an excellent TOF as high as 36.9 x 10(3)h(-1) and no obvious decrease in the activity was observed after ten consecutive runs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.