Highly Porous Carbon Materials Derived from Silicon Oxycarbides and Effect of the Pyrolysis Temperature on Their Electrochemical Response

The design of a material porous microstructure with interconnected micro-meso-macropores is a key issue for the successful development of carbon-derived materials for supercapacitor applications. Another important issue is the nature of these carbon materials. For those reasons, in this study, novel hierarchical micro-meso-macroporous silicon oxycarbide-derived carbon (SiOC-DC) was obtained via chlorine etching of carbon-enriched SiOC prepared via pyrolysis (1100–1400 °C) of sol-gel triethoxysilane/dimethyldiphenysiloxane hybrids. In addition, and for the first time, non-conventional Raman parameters combined with the analysis of their microstructural characteristics were considered to establish their relationships with their electrochemical response. The sample pyrolyzed at 1100 °C showed planar and less-defective carbon domains together with the largest specific surface area (SSA) and the highest volume of micro-meso-macropores, which upgraded their electrochemical response. This sample has the highest specific capacitance (C(s) = 101 Fg(−1) (0.2 Ag(−1))), energy (E(d) = 12–7 Wh(−1) kg(−1)), and power densities (P(d) = 0.32–35 kw kg(−1)), showing a good capacitance retention ratio up to 98% after 10,000 charge–discharge cycles at 0.5 Ag(−1). At a pyrolysis temperature ≥ 1200 °C, the carbon domains were highly ordered and tortuous with a high degree of interconnection. However, SSA and pore volumes (micro-meso-macropores) were significantly reduced and downgraded the C(s), E(d), and P(d) values.