The present article reports a theoretical study of oxygen interacted with graphene surface containing defect sites on the atomic level by employing the density functional theory combined with the graphene cluster model. It was founded that oxygen molecule prefers to be chemisorbed on the graphene surface containing defect sites compared to the perfect surface. The adsorption energy of O-2 on the double defect site is about 2.5 times as large as that on the perfect graphene surface. Moreover, the oxygen molecule interacts with S-W defect site gives rise to stable epoxy structure, which pulling the carbon atom outward from the original site in the direction perpendicular to the surface. If the oxygen molecule is adsorbed on the single vacancy site, two C=O bonds are formed on the graphene surface. However, when the oxygen molecule is chemisorbed on the double vacancy site, the oxygen atoms substitute the missing carbon atom's position in the carbon plane and form a hexagonal structure on the graphene network. The results indicate that single active oxygen atom approaches the defect site, it's completely adsorbed in the plane and high energy is released. In all cases, the interaction of an oxygen atom with defect surface involves an exothermic process. The defect site creates active sites on the surface of graphene and produces catalytic effects during the process of oxidation of carbonaceous materials. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.