Stable Pt/BiOCl nanocomposite was successfully fabricated via a facile one-step solution method and applied in room temperature selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol under base-free aqueous conditions. The results demonstrate that Pt/BiOCl exhibits excellent catalytic efficiency with the activity of 99.6% in conversion and nearly 100% selectivity to benzaldehyde in 5 h and it may be ascribed to the coexistence of Pt and BiOCl which facilitate the activation of alpha-C-H in benzyl alcohol. This study successfully expands the applications of BiOCl-related materials from photocatalysis to selective oxidative reactions in non-photocatalytic reactions. [GRAPHICS] .