Abstract.High performance iron-manganese catalysts dispersed with carbon to produce light olefins from CO hydrogenation were prepared by sol-gel method using citric acid as precursor. The effects of carbon content on the bulk structure, the water gas shift reaction, the chain propagation ability and the activity and selectivity of the catalysts were investigated. The results showed that the catalysts were gradually reduced during the decomposition of the precursor when calcined under pure N2. The formation of iron-manganese mixed crystallites was favored and stabilized because of the enhanced interaction of iron and manganese with increasing carbon content. During the subsequent CO hydrogenation reaction, all the catalysts showed high activity and olefin selectivity. With increasing carbon content, the water gas shift (WGS) reaction was restrained and the chain propagation ability was inhibited. Catalysts with higher carbon content showed much lighter hydrocarbon products; however, the selectivity of CH4 was almost unchanged.