Oxygen desorption from cationic vanadium oxide clusters, VnOm+ (n=2-10), composed of a near-stoichiometric (n:m = 2:5) frame with excess oxygen attached was investigated in a thermal energy region by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and thermal desorption spectrometry. Oxygen molecules were observed to desorb from the clusters during heating. The activation energy for desorption was estimated from the temperature dependence of different clusters and exhibited an even-odd alternation with respect to the cluster size, n. This alternation can be explained in terms of oxidation states of the vanadium atoms. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.