Temperature-programmed desorption of water and ammonia on sulphated zirconia catalysts for measuring their strong acidity and acidity distribution

Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of water and ammonia over ZrO2 and sulphated ZrO2 prepared by different methods has been investigated for measuring strong acidity and acidity distribution on sulphated zirconia-type solid super-acid catalysts. The TPD of water provides a simple reliable method for this purpose because of the high stability of water molecules under redox conditions.