A novel thermal desorption spectroscopy apparatus

We present a new experimental setup designed to perform measurements of the rmal desorption spectroscopy of hydrogen released from metallic samples. Th e distinctive features of the proposed arrangement are a compact reactor an d the use of a mass flow meter to measure the flux of gas desorbed from the sample. A complete set of hydrogen desorption spectra from Pd samples has been recorded to test the equipment. The spectra show very good reproducibi lity, a high signal-to-noise ratio, and agree very well with results report ed in the literature obtained using more sophisticated equipment. These fea tures encourage the use of this low cost setup to perform a fast and reliab le characterization of the processes controling hydrogen desorption from me tallic compounds. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)04 105-8].