A novel thermal desorption spectroscopy apparatus

We present a new experimental setup designed to perform measurements of thermal desorption spectroscopy of hydrogen released from metallic samples. The distinctive features of the proposed arrangement are a compact reactor and 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 reproducibility, a high signal-to-noise ratio, and agree very well with results reported in the literature obtained using more sophisticated equipment. These features encourage the use of this low cost setup to perform a fast and reliable characterization of the processes controling hydrogen desorption from metallic compounds. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)04105-8].