A calcium vanadate apatite (VAp), in which PO
43- of hydroxyapatite (HAP), Ca
10(PO
4)
6(OH)
2, iscompletely substituted by VO
43- in the apatite framework, was synthesized. Physicochemical analysis ofthe VAp reveals the presence of isolated VO
4 tetrahedron units with a pentavalent oxidation state. TheVAp acts as a high-performance heterogeneous base catalyst for various carbon-carbon bond-formingreactions such as Michael and aldol reactions in aqueous media and the H-D exchange reactions usingdeuterium oxide. For example, a 200-mmol-scale Michael reaction under triphasic conditions proceededrapidly, with an extremely high turnover number of up to 260 400 and an excellent turnover frequencyof 48 s
-1. No vanadium leaching was detected during the above reactions, and the catalyst was readilyrecycled with no loss of activity.