The present invention relates to an active carbon containing an alkaline
earth metal compound inside the particle and having a specific surface
area of 10 to 2,000 m.sup.2/g, which is suitable to be used for
polarizable electrodes in an electric double layer capacitor. The active
carbon of the present invention enables to increase the capacitance of an
electric double layer capacitor as well as to control the expansion of
electrodes. The active carbon of the present invention can be obtained by
adding an alkaline earth metal compound to a material such as pitch and
performing heat treatment and activation.