I will give a brief introduction to neutron scattering, with the emphasis on neutron vibrational (INS) spectroscopy. I will illustrate the advantages of INS with reference to C60. The talk will emphasise the synergy between structural methods, spectroscopy and computational studies. I will describe some recent work on the quantification of the hydrogen content in hydrocarbonaceous overlayers on methane reforming catalysts. The relative determination of the beta-PdH content of Pd-based selective hydrogenation catalysts will be shown. A new area for INS spectroscopy is the investigation of proton conducting inorganic oxides and I will show how the combination of methods can give insight into the local structure.