The desorption kinetics of H-2 from a Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst for methanol sy
nthesis were studied under atmospheric pressure in a microreactor set-up by
performing temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments after vario
us pretreatments of the catalyst. Complete saturation with adsorbed atomic
hydrogen was obtained by dosing highly purified H-2 for 1 h at 240 K and at
a pressure of 15 bar. The TPD spectra showed symmetric H-2 peaks centered
at around 300 K caused by associative desorption of H-2 from Cu metal surfa
ce sites. H-2 TPD experiments performed with different initial coverages re
sulted in peak maxima shifting to higher temperatures with lower initial co
verages indicating that the desorption of H-2 from Cu is of second order. T
he microkinetic analysis of the TPD traces obtained with different heating
rates yielded an activation energy of desorption of 78 kJmol(-1) and a corr
esponding frequency factor of desorption of 3x 10(11) s(-1) in good agreeme
nt with the kinetic parameters obtained with Cu(111) under UHV conditions.