Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) is a technique for the characterization of solid materials and is often used in the field of heterogeneous catalysis to find the most efficient reduction conditions, an oxidized catalyst precursor is submitted to a programmed temperature rise while a reducing gas mixture is flowed over it. It was developed by John Ward Jenkins whilst developing heterogeneous catalysts for Shell Oil company, but was never patented. A simple container (U-tube) is filled with a solid or catalyst. This sample vessel is positioned in a furnace with temperature control equipment. A thermocouple is placed in the solid for temperature measurement. The air originally present in the container is flushed out with an inert gas (nitrogen, argon). Flow controllers are used to add hydrogen (for example, 10 Vol -% hydrogen in nitrogen). The composition of the gaseous mixture is measured at the exit of the sample container with appropriate detectors (thermal conductivity detector, mass spectrometer).

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