Experimental evidence for the presence of tert-butyl cations,w hich are important intermediates in acid-catalyzed heterogeneous reactions,o ns olid acids has still not been provided to date.B yc ombining density functional theory (DFT) calculations with 1 H/ 13 Cm agic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy, the tert-butyl cation was successfully identified on zeolite H-ZSM-5 upon conversion of isobutene by capturing this intermediate with ammonia.