Phenol could generate useful hydrated electron for the pollutants remediation.

With p-benzoquinone as the product, one mole of phenol could eject four moles of hydrated electron via two periods.

The formation of p-hydroquinone was accomplished by hydrogen abstraction of the adduct with phenoxyl radical as hydrogen acceptor.

The generation of hydrated electron from the molecular phenol was facilitated by OH⁻ via multiple site electron–proton transfer (MS-EPT) pathway.

The quantum calculation results were in agreement with the experimental proposal.