is heated and this induces desorption of atoms or molecules from the surface. The first use of thermal desorption was by LeRoy Apker in 1948. It is one of the most frequently used modes of desorption, and can be used to determine surface coverages of adsorbates and to evaluate the activation energy of desorption.

Thermal desorption is typically described by the Polanyi-Wigner equation:

where r is the rate of desorption, is the adsorbate

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