From magnesium citrate and its mixtures with poly (vinyl alcohol), mesoporous carbons were successfully obtained through their carbonization at 900°C, followed by the dissolution of MgO. A high surface area as more than 1500m2/g was obtained without any activation process, which was mainly due to mesopores with a size of about 5 nm, and mesopore volume reached 2 mL/g. Electric double layer capacitor composed of these mesoporous carbons and 1 mol/L H2SO4 electrolyte showed a high capacitance about 320 F/g with a charge-discharge current density of 20 mA/g and about 220 F/g with a high current density of 1000 mA/g. The carbons prepared showed a high adsorption ability for gasoline vapor, about 1g/g of carbon. A relatively good linear relation between adsorbed amount of gasoline vapor and pore volume with the size less than 10 nm was found.
