This paper attempts to summarize our recent studies on the chemical design and characterization of catalytic sites at oxide surfaces such as Nb monomer, dimer and monolayer on SiO2, Rh dimers on SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3, and MgO, and An nanoparticles on TiO2 (110), prepared by using suitable metal-complex precursors in a molecular scale. The paper also reports performances of new molecular imprinting catalysts, SiO2 overlayers/(alpha-Al2O3 and Rh-SiO2 overlayers/SiO2, designed by surface molecular imprinting techniques. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.