Preparation of Cu-Doped Bicontinuous Catalyst and the Performance in Non-thermal Plasma Co-catalytic Degradation of H2S

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) co-catalytic technology is a waste gas treatment technology with high energy efficiency and little by-product. Catalyst plays an important role in the process of NTP co-catalytic degradation of contaminants. However, the performance of the catalyst is not only directly related to active center but also closely related to carrier. In this study, we successfully prepared stable Cu-doped catalysts with bicontinuous structure, using Cu(NO 3 ) 2 , Al(NO 3 ) 3 , and tetramethoxysilane as precursors through sol–gel process accompanied by phase separation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), temperature programmed desorption (TPD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), and mercury intrusion porosity (MIP) were used to investigate the structure, properties, and the role of Al. It was found that in this Cu-doped system, addition of Al can produce Brønsted acidic sites and facilitate the divalent Cu dope into neutral Si skeleton to form stable complexes. Then, it was used as catalyst in NTP system to study the performance of the system and degradation mechanism of H 2 S. When binary metal catalyst was used, synergistic NTP system creates a secondary electron emission to enhance the field strength, 20 mg·m −3 H 2 S has the best degradation efficiency, and Cu-doped catalysts can cyclic utilization. At the same time, selective oxidation occurs in the system; elemental sulfur is produced.