Abstract: A high-performance, gold-promoted Pd catalyst with mesoporous hollow silica spheres as support, PdAu/MHSS, was prepared using an impregnation–reduction approach. The catalyst showed 10 times higher activity than commercial Pd/C catalyst and 6 times higher activity than Pd/MHSS catalyst. The conversion of phenol was 100% within 30min of reaction at 80°C. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, XPS, and TEM, which revealed that its high performance may result from both the high dispersion of active components on the MHSS, caused by the addition of gold, and the interaction between palladium and gold. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]