Decomposition of hydrogen sulfide in non-thermal plasma aided by supported CdS and ZnS semiconductors

The decomposition of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has attracted increasing attention because it produces hydrogen from a hazardous waste gas. However, the thermal equilibrium limitation in the decomposition gives rise to low H2S conversion and high energy costs for hydrogen production. In the present work, we demonstrate that alumina-supported CdS and ZnS significantly enhanced the conversion in the non-thermal plasma-induced decomposition of H2S, achieving full conversion at reasonably low energy consumption. It appears that the enhancement might be attributed to the conversion of H2S by its reaction with h(+) and e(-) on the surface of the CdS and ZnS semiconductors, which are generated by the strong electric field and plasma-induced photons.