Measuring Adsorption Capacity of Supported Catalysts with a Novel Quasi‐Continuous Pulse Chemisorption Method

Abstract An improved pulse‐chemisorption technique is presented, which is proven to be independent of the strength of interaction between adsorptive and catalyst material. The methodology is based on the transient mass balance of the adsorptive, allowing for quantitative evaluation of the pulse‐signal obtained from the experiment. Two experimental strategies for determination of the adsorption capacity are introduced, with and without using an internal standard. The methodology is illustratively discussed based on simulation results and verified by chemisorption experiments of hydrogen and carbon dioxide on a supported nickel catalyst. In addition, temperature and dosing effects are examined and benchmarked with volumetric measurements of the adsorption capacity. The proposed mathematical evaluation method of the measured data can be applied directly to experiments performed in standard equipment for pulse‐chemisorption or in modified catalyst test rigs to measure adsorption capacity before and after reaction experiments. The technique shows potential for determination of sorption kinetics and combination with operando spectroscopy.