Infrared investigations on the interaction of methane with silica, aluminas (eta, gamma and alpha) and HZSM-5 zeolite have been carried out. At low temperature (173 K), methane adsorption was observed over these oxides and HZSM-5 zeolite. Our findings featured that the infrared inactive upsilon(1) band (2917 cm(-1)) of a gaseous methane molecule became active and shifted to lower frequencies (2900 and 2890 cm(-1)) when it adsorbed on the surfaces of these adsorbents. Our results also demonstrate that hydroxyl groups played a very important role in methane adsorption over the acidic oxides and the HZSM-5 zeolite. When interaction between the hydroxyl groups and methane took place, the band shift of the hydroxyl groups varied with different oxides. The strength of the interaction decreased according to the following sequence, Si-OH-Al > Al-OH > Si-OH, which is in accordance with the order of their acidities. At higher temperatures, methane interacted quite differently with various oxides and HZSM-5 zeolite. It has been observed that the hydroxyl groups of silica, gamma-alumina and HZSM-5 zeolite could exchange with CD4 at temperatures higher than 773 K, while those on eta-alumina could exchange at a temperature as low as 573 K. Another interesting observation was the formation of formate species over Al2O3 (both eta and gamma) at temperatures higher than 473 K. The formate species would decompose to CO2, or produce carbonate at much higher temperatures. Formation of formate species was not observed over silica and HZSM-5 under similar conditions. alpha-Al2O3 did not adsorb or react with methane in any case.