The adsorption of some hydroxy-acids (i.e. citric, tartaric and salicy
lic) on a gamma-alumina support has been investigated by transmission
FT-IR. The results imply that the observed changes in the IR spectrosc
opic properties of the supported hydroxy-acids are mainly due to inter
action of the acids with alumina hydroxyl groups. The IR spectra in th
e C=O stretching region of the hydroxy-acids supported on alumina are
quite different from those of the unsupported compounds.