Cu-ZSM-5 molecular sieves were prepared by the ion-exchange of NH4-ZSM-5 with Cu(superscript 2+) ions in Cu(NO3)2 solution, and was characterized by diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (DRS-UV-vis), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) techniques. And at same time, the catalytic activity of the obtained Cu-ZSM-5 in the trichioroethylene (TCE) combustion with air in the fixed-bed system was also investigated in the present work. The results indicated that the copper content in Cu-ZSM-5 was increased with the increasing Cu(superscript 2+) concentration in ion-exchange solution, and however the catalytic activity was not always increased with the copper content in Cu-ZSM-5. It was found that Cu-ZSM-5, prepared with 0.091 mol/L of Cu(superscript 2+) solution, exhibited the best catalytic activity in TCE combustion. In combination with the characterization results by DRS-UV-vis and FT-ER techniques, it was deduced that the catalytic active species of Cu-ZSM-5 in TCE combustion with air was the skeletal copper of molecular sieves.