Heats of adsorption using temperature programmed adsorption equilibrium: application to the adsorption of CO on Cu/A12O3 and H2 on Pt/Al2O3

A new simple analytical procedure is described that allows the determination of the heats of adsorption (denoted E(theta)) of adsorbed species at several coverages (theta's) using a single experiment. This procedure is an extension of an original method previously developed (denoted AEIR: adsorption equilibrium infrared spectroscopy). A mass spectrometer is used to determine the amounts of gas (in the present study, CO and H2) either desorbed from or adsorbed on a metal supported catalyst (4.7% Cu/Al2O3 and 2.9% Pt/Al2O3) during the perturbation of the adsorption equilibrium due to a controlled change of the adsorption temperature (Ta) at a quasi-constant adsorption pressure (Pa). These amounts allow us to follow the evolution of the adsorption equilibrium coverage (theta(e)) with Ta at the quasi-constant partial pressure (Pa). Then, the curve theta(e) = f(Ta) provides Etheta = f(theta) with the support of an adsorption model. This procedure presents several advantages as compared to the TPD methods, in particular, considering the theoretical supports linked to the exploitation of the experimental data. As compared to AEIR, the TPAE procedure allows one to study the heats of adsorption of adsorbed species that are not detectable by IR. However, it is not adapted if surface reactions occur in parallel to adsorption/desorption processes.