Mesoporous VMCM-41 was synthesized hydrothermally using various vanadium sources, viz, tetravalent vanadium such as vanadyl sulfate and vanadyl acetylacetonate, as well as pentavalent vanadium like sodium vanadate and ammonium vanadate. The influence of different vanadium sources on the framework substitution of vanadium, as well as their catalytic activity for the oxidation of cyclohexane, was investigated. Among the different vanadium stocks, the tetravalent vanadium sources showed maximum vanadium incorporation in the silicate framework of MCM-41. As it consequence, these catalysts gave much higher substrate conversion and excellent product selectivity. On the other hand, the catalysts prepared from pentavalent vanadium sources showed lower activity owing to the smaller amounts of vanadium in the matrix. Although the activity of the catalyst slightly decreased after first recycle as due to leaching of small amounts of active vanadium species, it however remained nearly the same even after several recycles. This was further confirmed by washing experiments wherein non-framework vanadium ions were removed upon ammonium acetate treatment; the washed catalysts showed a similar activity to those of the recycled catalysts. Thus, recycled/washed VMCM-41 behaves truly as heterogeneous catalyst. Furthermore, the influence of pore size of the catalyst was tested for the oxidation of bulkier substrate, viz, cyclododecane. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.