With the aid of activated carbon, a series of mesoporous ZnO/SiO2 sorbents are fabricated by sol–gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), N2 adsorption and desorption, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The dynamic tests for H2S capture show that the prepared materials with the aid of AC exhibit excellent performance for H2S capture. The highest sulfur capacity of ZSC-X reaches to 160.95 mgS/g sorbent and the corresponding ZnO utilization is up to 69.02%. The enhanced performance is attributed to AC, which has double roles in this study: anchor and confine ZnO to get highly dispersed small nanoparticles; produce more oxygen vacancies in ZnO to facilitate lattice diffusion. The formation mechanism of well dispersed ZnO nanoparticles is also elucidated. The simply fabricating method of sorbents with high ZnO loading and high utilization is of significance for industrial application of ZnO in H2S removal at room temperature.