It is demonstrated that attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy coupled with multivariate data analysis can be effectively used for in situ investigation of supported catalyst-liquid interfaces. Both formaldehyde adsorption/dissociation in water and acetonitrile adsorption in hexane on thin (ca 10 mu m) films of 5 wt % Pt/gamma-Al2O3 deposited on a germanium waveguide have been investigated. The multivariate analysis applies classical least squares (CLS) and partial least squares (PLS) methods to the ATR-IR data in order to correlate spectral changes with known sources of experimental variation (i.e., time, concentration of solution species, etc.). The formaldehyde adsorption experiments revealed no spectroscopic evidence for adsorbed molecular formaldehyde under the conditions examined. However, the dissociation product carbon monoxide was observed to form in atop configuration on Pt, likely on edges and terrace sites. Isotope labeling experiments suggest that a pair of peaks observed at 1990 and 2060 cm(-1) during treatments of Pt in H-2-saturated water arise at least in part from nu(Pt-H) stretching of adsorbed atomic hydrogen. Acetonitrile was found to adsorb on the Pt catalyst by c-bonding of the CN group with the platinum, yielding apparent surface peaks that are almost identical to that observed in the liquid phase. A peak at 1641 cm(-1) was observed which was assigned to the adsorption of the CN group in a tilted configuration involving a combination of end-on and pi interaction with the surface. This species was found to be reactive toward hydrogen, suggesting that it might play a role in nitrile hydrogenation. The prospects of using this approach to examine solid-catalyzed liquid-phase reactions are discussed in light of these findings.