Polymer-derived SiOC ceramics: A potential catalyst support controlled by the sintering temperature and carbon content

A series of silicon oxycarbide ceramics with varying carbon content from ca. 10 wt% to ca. 40 wt% were prepared by thermal pyrolysis of four commercially available polysiloxanes and subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1200 °C, 1400 °C, and 1600 °C. The results showed that the high carbon content led to a porous microstructure, and for SiOC with ca. 40 wt% carbon content, its porosity and specific surface area at 1600 °C reached 34% and 262 m2/g, respectively. The electrochemical behavior of materials was evaluated. It was shown that SiOC has a certain degree of electrocatalytic activity, and the sample with 10 wt% carbon content obtained at 1200 °C exhibited an overpotential of 450 mV vs. RHE at 10 mA·cm-2 in acid medium. Finally, it was analyzed that the electrochemical behavior of SiOC is closely related to the phase composition and microstructure of the resulting ceramics.