The collection provides an overview of existing representations of the nature-active surface, on the structure of surface compounds and their possible role in the course of catalytic processes on oxides and metals , Articles on the use of IC methods , - UV and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy , as well as chemiluminescence in adsorption and catalysis. The collection is intended for researchers specializing in the field of heterogeneous catalysis and related areas of physical chemistry . The hypothesis of the formation of intermediate chemical compounds in catalysis arose in the XIX century. almost simultaneously with the emergence of the concept of catalysis. With the advent of vacuum technology in the XX in . It became possible to measure adsorption on solids and there were ideas about the role of chemo-sorption and activated adsorption in heterogeneous catalysis (I.). Langmuir,X. Taylor, G. M. Schwab, S. 3. Roginsky, M. and . Temkin et al . ). However, up to the end of the 60s XX in . Almost all researchers who studied the mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis were limited to measuring the number of adsorbed substances and trying to compare these amounts (as well as the rates of adsorption and desorption) with the rate of heterogeneous catalytic reaction .. Relatively low concentration of surface chemical compounds in relation to the total amount of a solid catalyst did not allow to study their structure, and even more so their possible role in catalysis .. However, the question of the structure of chemical compounds formed on the surface of a solid during adsorption and catalysis is extremely important for understanding the mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis .. The situation in this regard has begun to change radically in recent years due to the development of new experimental methods of research and the appearance of commercially available devices. Sensitivity is ,. which allows us to capture the details of the structure of chemical compounds on the surface of a solid . First of all, this refers to the development of spectroscopy in the optical range (ultraviolet, visible and infrared regions) and radiospectroscopy (electron paramagnetic and nuclear resonance, microwave rotational spectroscopy) .. Note that the pioneers of the widespread use of these methods inheterogeneous catalysis were A. N. Terenin and B. In. Voevodsky and their employees . Currently, sufficiently sensitive optical, infrared and EPR spectrometers have become available for a large number of laboratories. As a result, in almost all large catalytic laboratories, these methods are widely used to identify the structure of surface compounds. This was facilitated by the development of the theory of appropriate methods, which made it possible to obtain more complete information from the results of the experiment.