Production o f aromatics from lignin has attracted much attention. Because of the coexistence of C-O and C-C bonds and their complex combinations in the lignin macromolecular network, a plausible roadmap for developing a lignin catalytic decomposition process could be developed by exploring the transformation mechanisms of various model compounds. Herein, decomposition of a lignin model compound, 2-phenoxyacetophenone （2-PAP）, was investigated over several ce-sium-exchanged polyoxometalate （Cs-POM） catalysts. Decomposition of 2-PAP can follow two dif-ferent mechanisms： an active hydrogen transfer mechanism or an oxonium cation mechanism. The mechanism for most reactions depends on the competition between the acidity and redox proper-ties of the catalysts. The catalysts of POMs perform the following functions： promoting active hy-drogen liberated from ethanol and causing formation of and then temporarily stabilizing oxonium cations from 2-PAP. The use of Cs-PMo, which with strong redox ability, enhances hydrogen libera-tion and promotes liberated hydrogen transfer to the reaction intermediates. As a consequence, complete conversion of 2-PAP （〉99%） with excellent selectivities to the desired products （98.6% for phenol and 91.1% for acetophenone） can be achieved.
