Sol–gel carbons from ionothermal syntheses

Inorganic salt melts are used for the preparation of ceramics. It turns out that such ionothermal syntheses can also be employed in the chemistry of carbon. Carbon materials with improved application-relevant properties such as high surface area and large pore volume can be obtained. The way these properties are obtained strongly reminds on classic sol–gel synthesis, which displays a comparably easy approach toward such porous carbons. The central role of the solvent, i.e., the inorganic salt melt allows for variation of the chemical and morphological structure of carbon products. Interestingly, the use of inorganic salt melts may also give insights into the crystallization of carbon, if precursors are directly added to the hot melt, which additionally guarantees reorganizational dynamics to the pyrolysis intermediates.