Natural brucite and magnesia were applied as catalysts in catalytic ozonation of phenol in this work. It was found that both brucite and magnesia had remarkable accelerations on degradation of phenol and removal of COD in water. On this basis, effective and feasible routes for catalytic ozonation of phenol in water were proposed. The influence of initial pH value, radical scavengers and reaction temperature were investigated. The results revealed that there were different ozonation mechanisms in two systems: molecular ozone direct oxidation mechanism was proved in catalytic ozonation with brucite, and hydroxyl radical mechanism was demonstrated to play a main role in catalytic ozonation with magnesia. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.