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Zn-doped and Zn-Al co-doped La2O3catalysts were prepared by citric acid sol-gel method and characterized by a series of in situ technologies, to investigate the structure-activity relationship of La2O3-based catalysts in the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM). The in situ XRD results reveal a thermal expansion of the La2O3crystal along the c-axis at high temperature. The H2-TPR results show two types of oxygen species on the La2O3-based catalysts, viz., the strong-binding oxygen species and weak-binding oxygen species; in addition, the XPS results indicate that the strong-binding oxygen species is probably attributed to anion radical O−. The doping with Zn can significantly increase the number of oxygen vacancies in the Zn-doped La2O3catalysts, which can promote the activation of oxygen and generate more strong-binding oxygen species; as a result, the Zn-doped La2O3catalyst shows better performance in OCM in comparison with the unmodified La2O3catalyst. Moreover, the co-doping with Al can promote the dispersion of Zn in La2O3and further raise the number of strong-binding oxygen species in the Zn-Al co-doped La2O3catalysts, which is beneficial to enhance the selectivity to C2+hydrocarbons in the OCM reaction.