Metal supported carbon nanotubes (CNTs) appear promising for desulphurization catalysis. Therefore a characterization of the adsorption kinetics of small sulfur containing compounds on clean CNTs is important in order to develop a mechanistic understanding of more complex systems. Presented are thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) data of thiophene (C4H4S) adsorption on CNTs supported on silica. According to multi-mass TDS, molecular adsorption/desorption is present with a binding energy of (60 +/- 2) kJ/mol at small coverages. Alkane-thiophene co-adsorption TDS reveals that C4H4S molecules adsorb on interior sites of the CNTs. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.