The effect of Ce on the structure of MoVNbCeO multi-metal oxide catalysts and the performance of ethane selective oxidation was investigated.These multi-metal oxide catalysts with superior oxidizability exhibit high catalytic activity,and vanadium acts as the active center for ethane oxidation reaction.The improved catalytic activity is related to the increased V5+content on the catalyst surface,which results from the enhanced transformation of the electrons between V and Ce.Moreover,Ce effectively promotes oxygen adsorption,activation,and mobility.And the presence of Ce can also prevent MoO3 formation and stabilize the Mo5O14-like structure.In addition,the catalyst with a moderate amount of Ce exhibits outstanding catalytic performance.Especially,the MVN-Ce catalyst with a Ce/V ratio of 0.1 exhibits the best performance:the total selectivity of the catalyst toward C2H4 and CH3COOH is the highest(72%)at the ethane conversion of 31%.Therefore,MoVNbCeO multi-metal oxides are promising candidates for selective oxidation.