1-Butene, abundant but inexpensive in industry, can be used to produce more valuable propene and ethene through the well-known metathesis reaction. In terms of catalyst system of molybdena, controlling the interaction between the molybdena and the support is quite crucial. A special support, i.e., well-shaped one-dimensional gamma-Al2O3 with uniform diameters of similar to 10 nm and lengths of similar to 100 nm, has been synthesized via oleylamine-assisted hydrothermal method. The molybdenum oxides are well controlled in sizes of moderate aggregation suitable for 1-butene metathesis with a fairly high rate of propene production (38.9 x 10(-9) mol m(-2) s(-1), 30 mol% yield in a single pass) under mild conditions. The status of MoOx species in the catalyst has been investigated by solid state Si-29 MAS NMR, Raman, UV-vis, H-2-TPR and NH3-TPD techniques. The catalyst, highly stable after twelve times of regeneration, is important for practical utilization for the metathesis reactions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.