Article. Published in Physical Chemistry . — 1956. T. 30 No7 C. 1433-1437 . To elucidate the mechanism of catalytic reactions, the study of surface compounds of reactants with a catalyst . is essential. Of great interest are surface oxygen compounds with silver, which are a very specific oxidative catalyst, giving, in particular, the possibility of incomplete "soft" oxidation of organic compounds. The properties of silver as an oxidizing catalyst appear to be largely determined by its ability to form unstable surface oxygen compounds. The course of catalytic oxidation reactions is closely related to the properties of these surface compounds.