Superconductor mixed oxides were often used as catalysts at higher temperature in gas phase oxidations, and considered not suitable for lower temperature reactions in the liquid-solid phase; here the catalysis of YBa2Cu3O7+x and Y2BaCuO5+x in the phenol hydroxylation at lower temperature with H2O2 as oxygen donor was studied, and found that the superconductor YBaCu3O7±x has no catalytic activity for phenol hydroxylation, but Y2BaCuO5±x does, even has better catalytic activity and stability than most previously reported ones. With the studies of catalysis of other simple metal oxides and perovskite-like mixed oxides, a radical substitution mechanism is proposed and the experimental facts are explained clearly, and draw a conclusion that the perovskite-like mixed oxides with (AO)(ABO3) and (AO)2(ABO3) structure have better catalytic activity than the simple per-ovskite oxides with (ABO3)3 structure alone, and (AO) structure unit is the key for the mixed oxides to have the phenol hydroxylation activity.