In situ ATR-IR study of prochiral 2-methyl-2-pentenoic acid adsorption on Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3.

Adsorption and desorption of trans-2-methyl-2-pentenoic acid (MPeA) in dichloromethane (CH(2)Cl(2)) were investigated by using in situ attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy. A liquid flow-through spectroscopic cell allowed for high quality spectra to be obtained from deposited thin films of Al(2)O(3) and 1 wt% Pd/γ-Al(2)O(3) on a ZnSe internal reflection element. The MPeA molecules adsorb on both Al(2)O(3) and Pd surfaces molecularly and dissociatively under the concentration range examined (2-16 mM). In the case of molecular adsorption, both monomer (ν(C=O) ~ 1720 cm(-1)) and dimer (ν(C=O) ~ 1685 cm(-1)) species are observed to adsorb, with the relative amount of monomer to dimer dependent on the surface and the liquid phase acid concentration. In the case of dissociative adsorption, the acid adsorbs predominantly in a bridged bidentate configuration, as adjudged by the ca. 150-220 cm(-1) separation between asymmetric and symmetric vibrational bands. All of these species are found to be strongly adsorbed on both Al(2)O(3) and 1 wt% Pd/γ-Al(2)O(3) surfaces, even under pure solvent flow after adsorption.