Metal complexes of VO(IV), Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and HNIMMPP (4-(((2-hydroxy-5-nitrophenyl)imino)methyl)-3-methyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-5-ol)) schiff base ligand have been synthesized within zeolite-Y along with neat one. Synthesized compounds were characterized by physico-chemical techniques such as elemental analysis of catalysts, BET, XRD, SEM, FT-IR, UV-vis, ICP-OES and TGA. Synthesized zeolite-Y based nanohybrid materials and their uncovered complexes were used in styrene oxidation with TBHP as an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reaction of styrene furnished benzaldehyde as the major product and styrene glycol, chalcone and 2-phenyloxirane as minor products. Amongst all catalysts, [VO(HNIMMPP)(H2O)]-Y produced the highest conversion at 93.35% and selectivity of benzaldehyde (45.70%) was the greatest. These nanohybrid materials can be easily reprocessed and recovered within these reaction parameters. The reaction mechanism for catalytically oxidized styrene is discussed in the present paper. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.