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

Abstract

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.