Copper phthalocyanine as an efficient and reusable heterogeneous catalyst for direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol under mild conditions

[Display omitted] •Copper phthalocyanine has no solubility in common solvents without any immobilizing.•Hydroxylation of benzene was performed and phenol was achieved with high yield.•High stable structure of copper phthalocyanine prevents from leaching the metal. The liquid-phase oxidation of benzene to phenol over copper phthalocyanine as a heterogeneous catalyst was studied at room temperature. Acetonitrile was chosen as the preferred solvent and hydrogen peroxide as an eco-friendly oxidant. The yield and selectivity of 13.9% and 100% were obtained, respectively. The catalyst was characterized by FT-IR, UV-Vis, XRD, TGA, XPS, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, CHN, BET, FE-SEM, TEM, and EDX analysis. The effects of different parameters on the catalytic performance of CuPc were also investigated. The reusability of the catalyst was studied, and the results showed that after five cycles the yield of phenol did not change noticeably, probably due to its stability in the reaction conditions.