A novel liquid/solid two-phase reaction has been discovered that enables destruction of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) to a black carbon-based material. The solid phase is potassium hydroxide, and the liquid phase is a dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution of carbon tetrachloride and contains a certain amount of tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) as the phase-transfer catalyst. The reaction can be carried out at room temperature and under normal pressure. Pyrolysis of the carbon-based materials at 700degreesC and under a nitrogen atmosphere resulted in the formation of amorphous carbonaceous nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 30-60 nm. The carbonaeous materials have a specific surface area of 430 m(2)/g and an average pore size of 16 Angstrom. Raman spectral and elemental analysis results show the carbonaceous material consists Of sp(3) and sp(2) carbons and also contains a small amount of hydrogen (H/C = 0.08).