Abstract The oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of 1-butene to 1,3-butadiene was studied over a series AFe 2 O 4 catalysts, where A = Zn, Mn, Ni, Cu, Mg and Fe. catalysts were characterised by XPS, EPR spectroscopy, BET surface area analysis, Raman spectroscopy XRD. All the ferrites active for ODH gave an order activity after 80 h on-stream ZnFe > NiFe MnFe MgFe CuFe FeFe . lost significant (up...