Thermal desorption analysis (TDA): application in quantitative study of hydrogen trapping and release behavior

Thermal desorption analysis (TDA) is a powerful technique to study diffusion process, gas-surface interactions, and trapping effects. The specific experimental set-up and the desorption measurement's analysis and interpretation are strongly dependent on the purpose of the study. The extraction of quantitative parameters might be complicated and some simplifying approximations are often used. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the major steps needed to be taken in order to obtain a reliable and quantitative analysis. For demonstration, the desorption characteristic of hydrogen from helium bubbles' traps is shown. In this case, a comprehensive theoretical simulation of the experimental data was crucial to achieve full understanding of the trapping mechanism.