Isotope effects in the kinetics of simultaneous H and D thermal desorption from Pd Original Research Article

The kinetics of simultaneous hydrogen and deuterium thermal desorption from PdHxDy has been investigated. A novel experimental approach for the study of the transition state (TS) characteristics of the surface recombination reaction is proposed based on the analysis of the H and D partitioning into H2, HD and D2 molecules. It has been found that the hydrogen molecular isotopes distribution is determined by the energy differences of the corresponding TS of the atom–atom recombination reactions. On the other hand, the mechanisms and activation energies of the desorption process have been obtained. At 420 K, the desorption reaction changes from a surface recombination limiting mechanism during desorption from β-PdHxDy to a reaction limited by the rate of β to α phase transformation during the two phase coexistence. Surface recombination reaction becomes again rate limiting above 480 K, due to a change in the catalytic properties of the Pd surface. TS energies obtained from the kinetic analysis of the thermal desorption spectra are in good accordance with those obtained from the analysis of the H2, HD and D2 distributions. Anomalous TS energies have been observed for the H–D recombination reaction, which may be related to the heteronuclear character of this molecule.