Abstract

In this study, Si porous pyramids nanostructures were synthesized by the metal-assisted chemical etching technique. Different KOH concentrations were used to develop high surface area Si porous pyramids for application as supercapacitor electrodes. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) studies showed that 5 KOH solution will lead to high surface area Si pyramids with a specific capacitance of 90.3 F/cm2. Silicon carbide (SiC) thin film was coated on Si pyramids (SiC@Si) using a facile sol–gel method followed by a carbothermal reduction process. Tetraethylorthosilicate and sugar were used as carbon sources. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and FE-SEM analysis were used to characterize the developed SiC@Si samples. The developed SiC@ Si electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance of 135.5 F/cm2 at a scan rate of 10 mV/s (in 1 M NaOH electrolyte). The supercapacitor capability of this SiC@Si structure is significantly higher than classical materials. Because of its facile, controllable and efficient synthesis technique, this novel SiC@Si can be considered a very promising candidate for power sources applications. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.