The adsorption of CO on both nitrided and reduced passivated Mo 2 N catalysts in either alumina supported or unsupported forms was studied by adsorption microcalorimetry and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The CO is adsorbed on nitrided Mo 2 N catalysts on three different surface sites: 4-fold vacancies, Mo d+ (0 < d < 2) and N sites, with differential heats of CO adsorption decreasing in the same order. The presence of the aluminasupport affects the energetic distribution of the adsorption sites on the nitrided Mo 2 N, i.e. weakens the CO adsorption strength on the different sites and changes the fraction of sites adsorbing CO in a specific form, revealing that the alumina supported Mo 2 N phase shows lower electron density than pure Mo 2 N. On reduced passivated Mo 2 N catalysts the CO was found to adsorb mainly on Mo 4+ sites, although some slightly different surface Mo d+ (0 < d < 2) sites are also detected. The nature, density and distribution of surface sites of reduced passivated Mo 2 N/g-Al 2 O 3 were similar to those on reduced MoO 3 /g-Al 2 O 3 .