Heteroatom-doped carbon materials have demonstrated great potential in the electrochemical reduction reaction of CO

2

(CO

2

RR) due to their versatile structure and function. However

rational structure control remains one challenge. In this work

we reported a unique carbon precursor of soft template-containing porous poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) that was directly synthesized

via

free-radical self-polymerization of ionic liquid monomer in a soft template route. Variation of the carbonization temperature in a direct pyrolysis process without any additive yielded a series of carbon materials with facile adjustable textural properties and N species. Significantly

the integration of soft-template in the PIL precursor led to the formation of hierarchical porous carbon material with a higher surface area and larger pore size than that from the template-free precursor. In CO

2

RR to CO

the champion catalyst gave a Faraday efficiency of 83.0% and a current density of 1.79 mA·cm

-2

at -0.9 V

vs.

reversible hydrogen electrode (

vs.

RHE). The abundant graphite N species and hierarchical pore structure

especially the unique hierarchical small-/ultra-micropores were revealed to enable better CO

2

RR performance.