Various types of alcohols oxidation can be achieved using air as a sole oxidant at room temperature without any other additives. From the results of Ru K-edge XAFS and XPS characterizations, MnFe1.5Ru0.35Cu0.15O4 catalyst with possibly coordinatively unsaturation of the isolated Ru=O species as active sites is an efficient heterogeneous catalyst and can be reused. Besides, the workup procedure is extremely simple. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.