Surface Adsorbed Species: IR Studies of SO2 and H2S Adsorbed on Oxides

The adsorption of SO, on alumina leads to the formation of several species such as SO3=, HSO3- and coordinated SO2. In addition sulfates are produced under oxidizing conditions. However, definitive vibra- tional assignments are hampered by the paucity of data below 1000 cm-1 where alumina is strongly absorbing. On the other hand, silica is partially transparent at low frequencies and subtractive IR spectroscopy has permitted us to observe bands which are tentatively assigned to the SO bending modes of bisulfite (HSO3-, 635 cm-I) and disulfite (S2O5-, 660 cm-I) surface species on sodium promoted silica catalysts when SO and H2O are coadsorbed. H2S addition to a surface pretreated with SO2 gives rise to a new band at 680 cm-1 which is pos- sibly due to S2O3 orS2O on the surface. The results are discussed in terms of intermediates in the Claus process (2 H2S + SO2 + 3/n Sn + 2 H2O).