Abstract Porous carbon materials were prepared using resorcinol and formaldehyde catalyzed by KOH in a sol–gel process followed by carbonization, during which the KOH serves as an activating agent and generates pores mainly located in the micropore range. With an increase of mass ratio of KOH to resorcinol from 1 to 4, both the specific surface area and the pore volume of the carbons increas…