FTIR STUDY OF ADSORPTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF METHANETHIOL AND DIMETHYL SULFIDE ON ZIRCONIA

An FTIR study shows that methanethiol is adsorbed dissociatively on Zr O2 leading to thiolate species and associatively, giving rise to H-bon ded and coordinated species, less stable than the CH3S- species. Only coordinated and H-bonded species are formed by dimethyl sulfide adsorp tion. Heating in the presence of a gas phase shows that, besides the d ismutation of CH3SH into (CH3)2S and H2S, side reactions occur on the surface leading to methoxy and formate species.