Experimental IR spectra of carbon monoxide adsorbed on a series of Mo/Al2O3, CoMo/Al2O3, and NiMo/Al2O3 sulfided catalysts have been compared to ab initio DFT calculations of CO adsorption on CoMo and NiMo model surfaces. This approach allows the main IR features of CO adsorbed on the sulfide phase to be assigned with an uncertainty of 15 cm(-1). On the CoMo system, the band at 2070 cm(-1) is specific of the promotion by Co and is assigned to CO interacting either with a Co atom or with a Mo atom adjacent to a Co atom. On the NiMo system, CO adsorption on Ni centers of the promoted phase leads to a high-wavenumber band at approximately 2120 cm(-1) that strongly overlaps the band at 2110 cm(-1) characteristic of nonpromoted Mo sites. For NiMo and CoMo catalysts, broad shoulders at low wave numbers (below 2060 cm(-1)) are characteristic of Mo centers adjacent to promoter atoms, indicating a partial decoration of the MoS2 edges by the promoter.

The sorption of uranyl cations and water molecules on the basal (001) face of gibbsite was studied by combining vibrational and fluorescence spectroscopies together with density functional theory (DFT) computations. Both the calculated and experimental values of O-H bond lengths for the gibbsite bulk are in good agreement. In the second part, water sorption with this surface was studied to take into account the influence of hydration with respect to the uranyl adsorption. The computed water configurations agreed with previously published molecular dynamics studies. The uranyl adsorption in acidic media was followed by time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy and Raman spectrometry measurements. The existence of only one kind of adsorption site for the uranyl cation was then indicated in good agreement with the DFT calculations. The computation of the uranyl adsorption has been performed by means of a bidentate interaction with two surface oxygen atoms. The optimized structures displayed strong hydrogen bonds between the surface and the -yl oxygen of uranyl. The uranium-surface bond strength depends on the protonation state of the surface oxygen atoms. The calculated U-O(surface) bond lengths range between 2.1-2.2 and 2.6-2.7 A for the nonprotonated and protonated surface O atoms, respectively.