Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to study the structure and vibrational frequencies of the intermediate for the isocyanate (NCO) surface species on Ag/Al 2 O 3 catalyst using the GAUSSIAN 98 suite of programs. Thermal decomposition of adsorbed CH 3 NO 2 species leads to the formation of two types of NCO species (NCO on Ag and NCO on Al 2 O 3 ) above 298 K. In order to investigate the reaction mechanism, we have designed the calculated models (a-g) for the NCO intermediate. Through the analysis of the vibration mode and the vibration frequency of the calculated models (a-g), we conclude that there is an excellent agreement between the calculated vibration spectrum of the model (e) containing the -Ag NCO group or model (g) containing the -Al NCO group and the experimental vibration spectrum.