AbstractVanadium oxide supported on the surface of titanium silicalite was investigated in benzene hydroxylation to determine its activity as heterogeneous catalyst. Effect of vanadium loading on structure and activity of titanium silicalite was investigated. On the basis of X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy techniques, it was found that the titanium structure was remained on the modified catalyst. The catalytic activity of the modified catalyst was observed to be higher than that of parent catalyst.Keywordstitanium silicalite, vanadium oxide, hydroxylation, benzene AbstrakAktivitas vanadium oksida yang berada pada permukaan titanium silikalit sebagai katalis heterogen telah diteliti pada hidroksilasi benzena. Pengaruh loading vanadium terhadap struktur dan aktivitas titanium silikalit telah dipelajari. Berdasarkan teknik difraksi sinar-X dan spektroskopi inframerah, ditemukan bahwa titanium pada katalis yang telah dimodifikasi tidak mengalami perubahan struktur. Aktivitas katalitik dari katalis yang telah dimodifikasi diamati lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan katalis induk.Kata Kuncititanium silikalit, vanadium oksida, hidroksilasi, benzenahenol is an important intermediate compound for the synthesis of petrochemicals, agrochemicals, and plastics. Nowadays approximately 95 % of phenol production was produced by cumene process consisting of three main reaction steps (alkylation of benzene with propylene to cumene, oxidation of cumene to cumene hydroperoxide and decomposition to phenol and acetone) [1]. The advantage of the cumene process is that it takes two inexpensive starting materials, benzene and propylene and converts them into two high value useful products, phenol and acetone, using air. Despite its great success, the cumene process has some disadvantages such as the production of an explosive intermediate (cumene hydroperoxide), it has a high environmental impact, and it uses a corrosive catalyst. It is multi-step process, which makes it difficult to achieve high phenol yields in relation to benzene used and which leads to a high capital investment. It requires the uses of aggressive media (dilute sulphuric acid at 60-70 o C) and has a high acetone production as a co-product which results in an over supply in the market [2]. This situation encouraged scientists to develop other methods for producing phenol from benzene, preferably via a single-step and free of coproducts reaction, which thus would be economically favorable.The direct hydroxylation of benzene to phenol is an attractive alternative to phenol production for economically and environmentally reason [3]. One of the alternative routes to produce phenol which has more Mulyatun is with Department of Chemical Education, Faculty of Education, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Walisongo, Semarang, Indonesia.Didik Prasetyoko is with Department of Chemistry, FMIPA, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, 60111, Indonesia. E-mail: didikp@chem.its.ac.id. advantages is through benzene hydroxylation reaction using H 2 O 2 as oxidant agent a...