A method to predict the catalytic activity of a metal oxide of formula MxOy where x is a number from 1 to 3 and y is a number from 1 to 8 is provided. The metal of the metal oxide has redox coupled oxidation states wherein the redox transformation is between oxidation states selected from the group consisting of a diamagnetic oxidation state (Md+) and a paramagnetic oxidation state (Mp+), a paramagnetic oxidation state (Mp+) and a ferromagnetic oxidation state (Mf+), and a paramagnetic oxidation state (Mp+) and an antiferromagnetic oxidation state (Ma+)where d, p, f and a are independently numbers from 1 to 6 and one of the oxidation states (Md+), (Mp+), (Mf+), and (Ma+) is formed by reduction by the O2−. The magnetic susceptibility of the metal oxide as a sample in an oxygen environment at a specified temperature is correlated with a value of (Md+ or Mp+ or Mf+ or Ma+)/g (O2 rich). Then the magnetic susceptibility of the metal oxide as a sample in an oxygen free environment at the specified temperature is measured and correlated with a value of number of (Md+ or Mp+ or Mf+ or Ma+)/g (O2 deficient). The catalytic activity is predicted based on the difference of these two numbers.