Fe-ZSM-5 coated stainless-steel supports have been prepared by slurry coating technique using aluminium oxide as a binder and glacial acetic acid as the peptising agent. The zeolite-coated supports were characterised by means of XRD and N-2 adsorption measurements. The influence of the binder on the properties of the zeolite-coated supports such as surface area, micropore volume and adhesive strength was investigated. With coated stainless-steel supports the direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol was performed in a microreactor. This allows to work at elevated initial temperatures and high concentrations of the reactants, thus high space-time yields can be achieved. The effects of temperature and concentration of nitrous oxide on the initial yield as well as on the deactivation behaviour were investigated in order to maximise the achievable yield over several hours time-on-stream. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.