Catalysts in action: How TPR unlocks new possibilities

As the climate changes, there is a growing worldwide effort to decarbonize our energy systems.

From converting CO₂ into valuable chemicals to driving hydrogen production, catalysts play a central role in many of the reactions driving the energy transition, determining the efficiency of every reaction.

Designing and improving these catalysts starts with understanding how they behave under real reaction conditions.

That’s where temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and chemisorption come in.

These analytical techniques reveal the surface chemistry properties of a catalyst that determine whether it will succeed or fail.

This blog breaks down how TPR works, the insights shared by our senior applications scientist Dr. Simon Yunes in a recent webinar about CO₂ conversion chemistry, and how automated platforms like the ChemiSorb Auto support modern catalyst R&D.

In addition to TPR, the ChemiSorb Auto supports other chemisorption techniques including pulse chemisorption, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO).

What is TPR and why does it matter?

Temperature-programmed reduction, or TPR, is a type of chemisorption analysis most often used to characterize catalysts made from metals, metal oxides, mixed metal oxides, and metal oxides dispersed on a support. It reveals the reducibility and heterogeneity of the oxide’s surface by tracking how the material interacts with a hydrogen gas mixture as it’s heated at a controlled rate.

As the temperature rises, hydrogen reacts with metal oxides and reduces them to their metallic state. The instrument detects exactly when and how fast those reductions happen by measuring changes in the thermal conductivity of the gas stream.

Each reduction event shows up as a peak in the TPR profile, corresponding to a specific transition from one oxidation state to another.

The temperature at which the peak appears, the shape of the peak, and its area reveal:

• How easily the material reduces
• How strongly the active metal is bound to its support
• Whether promoters are present
• How the catalyst is likely to perform in real reactions

In other words, a TPR profile gives you a fingerprint of your catalyst’s behavior.

With ±1% repeatability, ultra-low void volume, and rapid detector response, the ChemiSorb Auto produces consistent, high-clarity TPR profiles suitable for both routine QC and advanced R&D.

The instrument can perform TPR analysis from sub-ambient temperatures as low as -100C up to 950C, a capability essential for accurately reducing and characterizing oxides such as platinum oxide and palladium oxide.

In clean-energy catalysis – where even small changes in activation temperature matter – these insights are indispensable.

Copper, zinc, and the chemistry of CO₂ conversion

In our recent launch webinar for the Chemisorb Auto, Dr. Simon Yunes explored a catalyst system designed for one of today’s most urgent challenges: converting CO₂ into useful and higher-value products.

Many industrial CO₂-to-fuel pathways begin upstream with biomass gasification. This process produces a mix of CO and H₂: a promising feedstock for sustainable fuels and valuable chemicals.

Copper catalysts are often used to activate CO in these reactions, but their performance can be significantly improved with promoters like zinc, which boosts stability and activation temperatures. TPR makes those improvements visible.

When copper oxide and zinc oxide are tested individually, each produces its own characteristic TPR profile. But when combined to produce a promoted Cu–Zn catalyst, the profile changes entirely, with the resulting TPR curve containing new reduction features that no longer belong to either oxide alone.

This new TPR signature provides three critical insights:

• The zinc promoter is truly interacting with the copper, not just coexisting.
• The reduction pathway has changed, indicating a new catalyst structure.
• The modified metal–support interaction enhances CO₂-related reaction performance.

For researchers working on energy conversion, hydrogen systems, or CO₂ reduction, this information is crucial to guiding better catalyst design.

A small change in reduction temperature can mean the difference between stable dispersion and destructive sintering – and therefore the difference between a catalyst that performs well and one that does not – long before costly testing begins.

Why automation matters: ChemiSorb Auto brings clarity and consistency

Catalyst development increasingly relies on fast, reliable surface insights. Traditional TPR systems can be slow, manual, or sensitive to operator variability. The ChemiSorb Auto simplifies this work through automated workflows and consistent analytical performance.

With dual mass-flow controllers, a patented gas-blending valve, calibrated dosing loop, and MicroActive software, it automates temperature-programmed and pulse chemisorption analyses while maintaining accuracy and repeatability.

Automatic gas calibration ensures reliable hydrogen-consumption measurements, and its benchtop footprint keeps routine TPR accessible to academic labs, industrial R&D groups, and QC teams alike, without compromising on precision.

Streamline your R&D processes with automated TPR

As the urgency for cleaner chemical processes grows, so does the demand for catalysts that are active, stable, and robust – often under harsh conditions.

Catalyst performance can hinge on subtle differences, including how a promoter changes reducibility, whether metal dispersion survives temperature cycling, or how metal-support interactions regulate adsorption dynamics.

From CO₂ upgrading to biomass conversion and hydrogen production, TPR provides a direct view into the structural and chemical factors that drive catalytic performance.

With TPR, researchers can detect subtle promoter effects, quantify hydrogen consumption, and build a complete understanding of reducibility and activation behavior – all essential for developing catalysts that meet the demands of the transition to cleaner technologies.

Download the ChemiSorb Auto brochure to learn how automated TPR could upgrade your workflow.

For an in-depth look at using the ChemiSorb Auto for catalyst design, catch up with the webinar here.