High-purity gaseous urea was generated by passing a carrier gas at 100 degrees C through an inert cordierite monolith impregnated with urea, and the gaseous urea adsorbed onto anatase TiO2 catalyst samples. Urea adsorption on the catalysts was confirmed by two independent methods: high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. Moreover, urea adsorption at the anatase (1 0 1) surface was studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In combination with the DRIFT spectra, the DFT calculations indicated that two different adsorbed states of deprotonated urea were present on the catalyst simultaneously: in one adsorbed state, urea bound at one Ti site, and in the other adsorbed state urea was rotated and bound at two Ti sites. The confirmation of urea adsorption on anatase supports our previous finding that urea thermolysis is a catalytic reaction. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.