Surface reactive oxygen species play a fundamental role in selective oxidation and combustion reactions catalyzed by metal oxides. Unravelling the nature of these transient species, and understanding the details of both their electronic structure and reactivity has been for decades one of the prime research areas of surface and catalytic chemistry. The longstanding activity of Michel Che in this area has been a source of inspiration for generation of researchers, and constitute his outstanding and enduring scientific legacy. Present review provides a survey of the surface oxygen species on oxide materials, which moving on from the Che’s pioneering works includes noteworthy results obtained during the years by other researchers. In particular, applications of two powerful techniques such as electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and photoluminescence (PL) for detailed characterization of paramagnetic (O⁻, O₂⁻, O₃⁻) and diamagnetic surface oxygen varieties (O²⁻_surf), respectively, are addressed here. Classification and insights into the formation pathways of these species on various oxide surfaces, as well as their involvement in model and real gas/solid and liquid/solid reactions of catalytic and photocatalytic relevance is also considered. Finally, the relationship between the thermodynamic and kinetic Bronsted basicity of low coordinated O²⁻_Lc anions is discussed, on the basis of Che’s fundamental studies and on recent developments.

表面活性氧在金属氧化物催化的选择性氧化和燃烧反应中起着基本作用。几十年来，揭示这些瞬态物种的性质以及了解其电子结构和反应性的细节一直是表面和催化化学的主要研究领域之一。Michel Che在这一领域的长期活动一直是一代研究者的灵感来源，并构成了他杰出而持久的科学遗产。本篇综述提供了对氧化物材料表面氧物种的调查，这是从Che的开创性工作中学到的，包括多年来其他研究人员获得的值得注意的结果。特别是，^-，O- ₂ ^-，O- ₃ ^- ）和反磁性表面氧品种（O ^2-_冲浪）分别被在这里解决。还考虑了这些物种在各种氧化物表面上的形成途径的分类和见解，以及它们在催化和光催化相关性的模型和实际气体/固体以及液体/固体反应中的参与。最后，在Che的基础研究和最新进展的基础上，讨论了低配位O ^2- _Lc阴离子的热力学和动力学布朗斯台德碱度之间的关系。