Structure-reactivity studies involving model supported metal oxide catalysts reveal that the efficiency of a particular selective oxidation reaction depends on the specific supported metal oxide species, the coverage of the surface metal oxide species, the oxide support, and the presence of secondary metal oxide additives. In situ Raman spectroscopy, activity, and selectivity of the partial oxidation of methanol, alkanes, and the selective catalytic reduction of NO with ammonia are discussed with respect to the above factors for supported metal oxide catalysts.Supported metal oxide catalysts are extensively employed in the petrochemical and pollution control industries as oxidation catalysts. For example, titania supported vanadia catalysts are used for the selective oxidation of o-xylene to phthalic anhydride, ammoxidation of aromatic methyl groups and the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO x with ammonia. The active redox components (V, Mo, Cr or Re) of supported metal oxide catalysts are present as two-dimensional metal oxide overlayers on the high surface area oxide supports (e.g., titania, alumina, silica, niobia, zirconia, etc.). Such supported metal oxide catalysts are also ideal model systems to study the fundamental aspects of selective oxidation reactions because the active surface redox sites can be molecularly characterized with in situ Raman, IR, solid state NMR, DRS and EXAFS/XANES. Furthermore, the environment around the active redox sites can also be varied by changing the surface metal oxide coverage, changing the specific oxide support or by the addition of secondary metal oxide additives (e.g., oxides of W, Nb, P, etc.) to the two-dimensional overlayer. In the present investigation, Raman