Synthesis, characteristics, porous design, and potential applications of novel carbon materials derived from ionic liquids precursors have been reviewed, including future trends and prospects in this direction.Carbon materials have been extensively used in diverse areas , especially in energy-related applications. Traditionally, these materials have been synthesized by carbonization of lowvapor-pressure natural or synthetic polymers. However, the polymer-related procedures are multistep and time consuming because of limited solubility and complicated synthesis. Recently, ionic liquids (ILs), composed of entirely cations and anions, have emerged as a new family of carbon precursors. The carbon-rich nature of ILs, coupled with their attractive properties such as diverse cation-anion combinations, low volatilities, and high thermal stabilities, not only greatly simplifies the entire carbonization process, but also gives rise to carbons with attractive features, which are distinct from those of carbons obtained using conventional polymer precursors, such as very high nitrogen contents and conductivities. In this review, we highlight recent approaches to the preparation of carbon materials using ILs as versatile precursors. We begin with a brief introduction to these novel precursors, discussing the key structures and properties of ILs that enable successful carbonization, and then address synthetic techniques for the fabrication of advanced porous carbons from ILs by either self-or external-template methods, followed by a review of the potential applications of ionic-liquidderived carbons. The review concludes with an overview of possible directions for future research in this field.In contrast, because of their high surface areas, electrical conductivities, low costs, and excellent chemical, mechanical, and thermal stabilities, carbon materials have been extensively used in diverse areas such as environmental treatment, catalysis, sensing, separation, gas capture/storage, and, particularly, as electrode materials or electrocatalysts for energy conversion/storage. [13][14][15][16][17][18] Carbon materials are generally prepared by carbonization of carboncontaining precursors at high temperature. The nature of the organic precursor is crucial to the preparation process (e.g., interactions between precursor and template 19 ), and the structures, properties, and performances of the final carbons. The chemical compositions of the precursors are often reflected in the final carbons, and strongly affect characteristics such as the carbon yield, porosity, surface area, graphitization, conductivity, and heteroatom doping. Most organic compounds are completely evaporated or decomposed to gaseous products during high-temperature carbonization, therefore currently available precursors are rather limited, and are mainly low-vaporpressure natural or synthetic polymers. 20 However, polymer-related procedures are multistep and time consuming. Moreover, for carbons derived from "hard carbon" precursors such as sucrose and furfuryl a...