NOVELTY - Making polymer particles in gel form via an emulsion or suspension process involves preparing a reactant mixture comprising a monomer component containing phenolic compounds and crosslinking compounds, and a carrier fluid, where: (a) the carrier fluid contains less than 50 wt% cyclohexane, based on the total weight of the carrier fluid, (b) the monomer component polymerizes to form the polymer particles in gel form, and (c) the carrier comprises an acid, base, or catalyst, or its combination, at a concentration for each species of at least 50% of the saturation limit.    USE - The method is useful for making polymer particles in gel form via an emulsion or suspension process. The polymer particles and carbon materials are useful for producing electrode, electrical energy storage device (all claimed), ultracapacitors, batteries, and other energy storage devices.    ADVANTAGE - The carbon materials comprise enhanced electrochemical properties and find utility in any number of electrical devices, for example, as electrode material in ultracapacitors or batteries. The methods can also be employed generally to improve emulsion and/or suspension polymerization processes by improved control of diffusion of acidic and basic species between the polymer and secondary phases.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Making polymer particles in gel form via an emulsion or suspension process involves preparing a reactant mixture comprising a monomer component containing one or more phenolic compounds and one or more crosslinking compounds, and a carrier fluid, where: (a) the carrier fluid contains less than 50 wt% cyclohexane, based on the total weight of the carrier fluid, (b) the monomer component polymerizes to form the polymer particles in gel form, (c) the carrier comprises an acid, base, or catalyst, or its combination, at a concentration for each species of at least 50% of the saturation limit, (d) a volume average particle size (Dv,50) of the polymer particles in gel form is greater than or equal to 1 mm, and (e) the carrier fluid is free of or contains a surfactant at a concentration less than the critical micelle concentration. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for:    (1) an electrode comprising activated pyrolyzed particles produced by the method; or an electrode comprising the carbon material;    (2) an electrical energy storage device comprising activated pyrolyzed particles produced by the method; or an electrical energy storage device comprising the carbon material or electrode;    (3) a carbon material with greater than 1700 m2/g specific surface area and pore volume greater than 0.7 cm3/g, and where greater than 95% or greater than 98% of total pores resides in pores with size of 20 Angstrom or less, and where the capacitance is greater than 120 F/g or greater than 125 F/g from gravimetric capacitance and greater than 26 F/cm3 or greater than 27 F/cm3 for the maximum theoretical capacitance, as measured at a current density of 0.5 Amp/g employing an electrolyte comprising tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborane in acetonitrile; and    (4) a suspension or emulsion polymerization process, comprising an aqueous polymer phase and an oil secondary phase, where the absolute pH (pHabs) of the aqueous polymer phase and an oil secondary phase are within 0.1, 0.5, or within 1 pHabs unit of each other; or where the pHabs of the aqueous polymer phase is at least 0.1, 05, or 1 pHabs unit greater than the pHabs of the oil secondary phase; or where the pHabs of the aqueous polymer phase is at least 0.1, 0.5, or 1 pHabs unit lower than the pHabs of the oil secondary phase.