In this report, we demonstrate the facile preparation of macroporous monolithic materials based on graphitized carbon by utilizing catalytic graphitization at relatively low temperature (1000 degrees C). The precursor polymer, macroporous resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) xerogel, can be obtained without any surfactants or polymeric additives in water/ethanol mixed solvent via the sol-gel reaction accompanied by phase separation. The use of iron chloride as an acid catalyst for polymerization provides the RF monoliths incorporated with Fe, which catalyzes the graphitization. The effects of the starting composition on the morphologies of the resultant RF gels and the characteristics of the graphitized carbon monoliths have been discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.