A new type of non-soluble copper aluminophosphate（denoted as CuAlPO） was synthesized by（static） hydrothermal crystallization and characterized by using several physicochemical techniques.XRD analysis reveals that CuAlPO can be obtained from a reactive gel of molar composition: iso-Pr2NH∶0.3CuO∶（0.7Al2O3∶）P2O5∶80H2O in a Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave at 180 ℃ for 72 h and has the same crystal structure as that of hexagonal SiO2（JCPDS No.83-2299）.The sources of CuO,Al2O3 and P2O5 were copper sulfate pentahydrate,aluminum isopropoxide and o-phosphoric acid（mass fraction: 85%）,respectively.SEM shows a characteristic hexagonal morphology and a crystallite size of about 2 μm for both the as-synthesized CuAlPO and the calcined CuAlPO（550 ℃,6h）.Low specific surace area（2.0 m2/g） and pore volume（0.004 mL/g） of CuAlPO were observed by N2-adsorption measurement.Catalytic evaluation tests demonstrate that an excellent transformation of phenol into catechol and hydroquinone over the material was achieved in water under the benign reaction conditions with a phenol conversion of 29.5% being observed at room temperature（30 ℃）.
