The development of highly active and efficient heterogeneous catalytic oxidation systems has become an attractive research area. In this study, nano cobalt-coordinated nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts (Co-N/C), which were prepared by the pyrolysis of cobalt porphyrin supported on carbon black precursor, were used as highly active catalysts for the oxidation of hydrocarbons with tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the oxidant. The results showed that the catalyst was efficient in the selective oxidation of a variety of saturated (including primary, secondary, and tertiary) C-H bonds. The catalyst displayed the best catalytic performance, which was comparable to those for previously reported metal oxide catalysts and even better. The resultant Co-N/C catalysts were characterized in detail by XRD, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, TEM, SEM and XPS. The homogeneous distribution of the Co species and interactions between the Co-N species could improve the synergistic effect between the Co-O, Co-N and N-C species, which led to their excellent catalytic performance. A first order kinetics was observed for the reaction with the apparent activation energy for ethylbenzene oxidation was 22.2 +/- 2.1 kJ mol(-1). (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.