FTIR study of adsorption and transformation of methanethiol and dimethyl sulfide on zirconia

Abstract

An FTIR study shows that methanethiol is adsorbed dissociatively on ZrO₂ leading to thiolate species and associatively, giving rise to H-bonded and coordinated species, less stable than the CH₃S^— species. Only coordinated and H-bonded species are formed by dimethyl sulfide adsorption. Heating in the presence of a gas phase shows that, besides the dismutation of CH₃SH into (CH₃)₂S and H₂S, side reactions occur on the surface leading to methoxy and formate species.