Industrially, phenol is produced by a multistep cumene process and it is desired to develop its direct synthesis from benzene where the oxidation occurs either by H{sub 2}O{sub 2} or by molecular oxygen. In the past, the latter using H{sub 2}O{sub 2} as oxidant has been catalyzed using several transition metal complexes and transition metal salts but is mostly carried out in molar ratios and the metal cannot be recycled. Recently, titanium silicalite has been reported to be an effective hydroxylation catalyst for benzene as well as phenol. Previously, vanadium complex with picolinic acid ligand has been shown to hydroxylate benzene in moderate yield. However, this complex is unstable and cannot be stored as it decomposes in air at room temperature. In view of this, the authors wished to develop other vanadium complexes which are stable. Here, the authors report on a polymer-supported VO(acac){sub 2} (acac, acetylacetonate) catalyst which is useful in the direct synthesis of phenol from benzene in acetic acid medium using H{sub 2}O{sub 2} as the oxidant. 16 refs., 1 fig.