Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas is a stable gas that is widely used in gas insulated lines (GILs) in power systems. However, in GIL, SF6 gas is in the environment of high temperature, high pressure and high voltage for a long time, SF6 gas will decompose into toxic gas, damage electrical equipment, and pose a huge threat to human body and ecological environment. In addition, SF6 gas is a greenhouse gas that is strictly forbidden to leak. Once leaked, it will cause great harm to the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to recover and purify the SF6 gas in the power system GIL. In this paper, a molecular model of carbon nanotubes is constructed, and the density functional theory is used to analyze the changes of charge distribution, density of states and molecular orbitals after adsorption of SF6 decomposition products by carbon nanotubes, and determine the gas-sensing response of carbon nanotubes to gas molecules characteristic.