text: Two promising methods for the description of the acid–base properties of metal oxides are Calorimetric measurements of adsorption enthalpies and Temperature Programmed desorption. The measurement of the heat of adsorption of basic or acidic probe molecules can give a description of acidic and basic sites on metal oxide surfaces. Temperature programmed desorption provides information about acid–base properties by saturating the surface with a probe molecule and measuring the amount that desorbs from the surface as a function of temperature. The calorimetric method provides a quantitative thermodynamic scale of acetate properties by measuring the heat of adsorption. Calorimetric methods can be considered to give a measure of the total acidity or basicity as it is not discriminate to either Lewis or Brønsted sites. However, when differential heats of adsorption are combined with other techniques, such as IR spectroscopy, the nature and distribution of acid–base adsorption sites can be obtained.