By monitoring the temperatures at which molecules are liberated and determining the volume of gas desorbed at each temperature, the strength and number of adsorption sites can be determined. Other common temperature controlled studies include TPR (reduction) which measures the quantity of reducible species in the sample, while TPO (oxidation) is used to quantify the oxidizable sites. When different temperatures are studied, calculations can be made to determine the heat of desorption.
Chemisorption analysis techniques provide much of the information necessary (such as percent metal dispersion, active metal surface area, size of active particles, and surface activity of catalytic materials) to evaluate today’s catalytic materials in the development and production phases, as well as after-use evaluation. Chemisorption analysis has a wide range of applications like catalysts and fuel cells design, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, isomerization, partial oxidation, catalytic reforming, catalytic cracking, hydrocracking, etc.
