Platinum and palladium supported on carbons are shown to he excellent catalysts for selective oxidation of organic alcohols to aldehydes (>99%) at high yields using dioxygen as an oxidant in supercritical CO2 fluid medium. There is no detectable over-oxidation of the product to acid and no metal leaching that are commonly encountered in the conventional aqueous medium. It is also found that the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of the catalyst surface relative to the CO2 solvent plays a crucial role in the resulting catalytic activity and stability. Adding 1% Teflon onto the noble metal-carbon catalysts dramatically enhances the activity and lifetime of the catalysts during the aerial oxidation of fine chemicals in scCO(2) fluid.