Abstract:The effects of chemical composition and preparation conditions, especially calcination atmosphere, water content and oxygen content on the catalytic performances of MoVTeNbO mixed oxide catalyst system for the selective oxidation of propane to acrylic acid have been investigated and discussed. Among the catalysts studied, the Mo 1.0 V 0.3 Te 0.23 Nb 0.12 O catalyst calcined in inert atmosphere under a temperature of 600°C showed the best performance in terms of propane conversion and selectivity to acrylic acid. The results revealed that proper chemical composition, calcination atmosphere, water content and oxygen content affected greatly the catalysts in many ways including structure, chemical composition, which are related to their catalytic performances, the 78% propane conversion and 61% one-pass yield to acrylic acid can be achieved at the same time.