Catalytic Friedel-Crafts acylation of benzene and unactivated benzenes such as chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene have been successfully carried out using activated hematite (a-Fe 2 O 3 ) as a new, heterogeneous and green catalyst. Sonication of neat aFe 2 O 3 in a water bath under air atmosphere at room temperature followed by heating at 200 8C, dramatically increase the activity of a-Fe 2 O 3 . With the catalyst loading as low as 5.0 mol%, a wide variety of benzene derivatives were easily converted into the corresponding acylated products in a clean and highyielding acylation reaction. It was found that the activated a-Fe 2 O 3 could be efficiently recycled and reused several times by simple washing with ethyl acetate, this cannot be attained with most of the traditional catalysts.