Methanol oxidation has been used here to study the acid and redox properties of heteropolyacids of the H3+nPVnMo12-nO40, (n = 0, 1, 2, 3) series, both unsupported and supported on the potassium salt K3PMo12O40. Increased vanadium content was found to improve selectivity to formaldehyde by favoring oxidative dehydrogenation at the expense of dehydration. This result is consistent with a reaction mechanism based on HOMO-LUMO interaction. Supported acids generally shown higher activity than the corresponding unsupported catalysts. For unsupported acids, activity was found to be governed mainly by absorption rates and stability of the secondary structure, whereas for supported acids whose structure was stabilized by the support, the influence of vanadium content was found to be a function of the overall proton concentration. © 1993 Academic Press, Inc.