Microporous carbons with narrow pore size distribution have been successfully synthesized by using hydrolyzed and calcined silica as templates and phenol formaldehyde (pf) resin as carbon precursor. Phenol formaldehyde-silica micro composites were prepared by solution route. Subsesequently, silica templates were removed by HF leaching. Resulting carbons were steam activated. The porous carbons were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm, SEM, FTIR analysis, iodine adsorption, thermogravimetry analysis, etc. Adsorption isotherms show that the porous carbon prepared from calcined silica as templates are microporous with 88% pores of size <2 nm porosity and are of type I isotherm, while porous carbon prepared by using hydrolyzed silica are microporous with 89% microporosity, shows hysteresis loop at high relative pressure indicating the presence of some mesoporosity in samples. The microporosity in porous carbon materials has a bearing on the nature of silica templates used for pore formation.