A combination of X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, diffuse reflection infrared Fourier transform, and ^31p magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance techniques with density function computation was used to elucidate the products and mecha- nism of the reactions among silica, H3PO4, and NaH2PO4 during the preparation of silica supported H3PO4 and NaH2PO4 catalysts. The spectral test results indicate that besides polyphosphoric acid, silicon phosphates on silica supported H3PO4 are also formed. On silica supported NaH2PO4 only sodium polyphosphates are present. Density functional theory （DFT） simulations indicate that in the initial stage, reaction of H3PO4 with silanol groups on the silica support is more favorable than that between H3PO4 itself. In contrast, dimerization and trimerization of NaH2PO4 are predicted to be the predominant initial reactions for the silica supported NaH2PO4 catalyst.
