This review summarises experimental and modelling studies concerning the development of kinetic oscillations during the catalytic decomposition of nitrous oxide. Oscillations over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts have been investigated using several methods and it could be shown that the formation of a strongly adsorbed nitrate formed in side reactions and the interaction of this species with atomic oxygen is responsible for the development of kinetic oscillations. The reaction of nitrous oxide over Fe-ZSM-5 catalysts shows similarities to the observations made with Cu-ZSM-5, but kinetic oscillations occur only in the presence of water vapour. On the other hand, isothermal oscillations observed over precious metal catalysts can be explained by art oxidation/reduction mechanism including the restructuring of the active catalyst surface under reaction conditions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.