The investigation of the interaction between the surface dispersed components and the supports is the key to understand the nature of catalytic reactions. A single metal oxide (CuO) and dual metal oxides (CuO-Mn 2O3, CuO-CoO, etc.) were supported on γ-Al 2O3 to produce model catalysts. The dispersion behavior of these metal oxides on the surface of γ-Al2O3 and some physicochemical properties were explained using the Incorporation Model. These properties were considered together with their catalytic performances in CO+O2 and NO+CO model reactions to explore composition- structure-property relationships. A possible reaction mechanism involving surface synergetic oxygen vacancy on the supported dual metal oxide catalysts was proposed to approach the nature of NO reduction by CO. © 2013 Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.