Porous and interconnected electrodes based on carbon nanoarchitectures offer comprehensive advantages of large specific surface area and high porosity consequently increasing the specific capacitance of ultracapacitor energy storage systems. Emulsion-templated polymers, PolyHIPEs (Polymerized High Internal Phase Emulsions) are highly porous polymers with a structure of cages interconnected by windows thus provide suitable framework to create such porous carbon nanostructures. Herein, nitrogen enriched porous carbon nanosheets are synthesized by pyrolysis of polymer-silica hybrid PolyHIPE and subsequent silica removal. This nitrogen enriched porous carbon nanosheets when tested as an electrode for ultracapacitor, showed specific capacitance as high as 209 F/g at a current density of 1 A/g in 1 M H2SO4 with excellent capacity retention over long cycling. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.