The oxidation of benzene to phenol has been successfully carried out in air over Cu-ZSM-5 at moderate temperatures. Several parameters such as Cu loading, calcination temperature and co-exchanged metal ions influence the nature of the catalyst. At low Cu loadings, the catalyst is more selective to phenol while at high Cu loadings CO2 is the major product. In situ H-2-TPR XAFS studies reveal that at low Cu loadings, Cu exists as isolated pentacoordinated ions, with 4 equatorial oxygens at 1.94 angstrom and a more distant axial oxygen at 2.34 angstrom. At higher loadings, monomeric as well as dimeric Cu species exist, with a Cu-Cu distance of 2.92 angstrom. This suggests that the isolated Cu sites are the active sites responsible for phenol formation. When the catalyst was calcined at 450 degrees C, the activity peaked in the first hour and then slowly deactivated, but when the calcination temperature was increased to 850 degrees C, the activity slowly increased until it reached a plateau. Analysis of the XANES region during in situ H-2-TPR shows that at lower calcination temperatures two reduction peaks are present, corresponding to Cu2+ -> Cu+ and Cu+ -> Cu-0. At high calcination temperatures, only a small fraction of the Cu undergoes the two-step reduction and most of the Cu remains in the +2 state. Slow deactivation of the catalyst calcined at 450 degrees C is due to migration of the Cu ions to inaccessible sites in the zeolite; at high calcination temperatures the Cu is tightly bound to the framework and is unable to migrate. EXAFS analysis of the sample calcined at 850 degrees C reveals two Cu-Si(Al) scattering paths at 2.83 angstrom. Doping the catalyst with other metals, in particular Ag and Pd, further improves the activity and selectivity of the reaction. The addition of water to the reaction increases the selectivity of the reaction by displacing the product from the active site. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.