Supported vanadium oxide in heterogeneous catalysis: elucidating the structure–activity relationship with spectroscopy

In order to design the next generation of catalysts, it is crucial that the insights of researchers in heterogeneous catalysis, materials design and spectroscopy are merged. Since the scientific community started to realize that the molecular pattern of a catalyst at room temperature and in vacuum does by no means reflect the actual structure of the catalytic species under working conditions, new spectroscopic techniques have been developed to study the catalytic species “while doing the job” or in Latin, “operando”. In this contribution, we give an overview of recent developments in—at first sight—the simple case of supported VO_x species. In the last few years, many issues on the nature of the active sites in supported VO_x species have been questioned again, and the observations and conclusions summarized in this paper present a clear case of the importance of structure–activity relationships in rational catalyst design.