Recently, owing to the discovery of graphene, porous carbons experienced a revitalization in their explorations. However, nowadays, the focus is more on search for suitable energy advancing catalysts sensing, energy storage or thermal/light absorbing features than on separations. In many of these processes, adsorption, although not emphasized sufficiently, can be a significant step. It can just provide a surface accumulation of molecules used in other application-driving chemical or physical phenomena or can be even an additional mechanism adding to the efficiency of the overall performance. However, that aspect of confined molecules in pores and their involvement in the overall performance is often underrated. In many applications, nanopores might silently advance the target processes or might very directly affect or change the outcomes. Therefore, the objective of this communication is to bring awareness to the role of nanopores in carbon materials, and also in other solids, to scientists working on cutting-edge application of nonporous carbons, not necessary involving the adsorption process directly. It is not our intention to provide a clear explanation of the small pore effects, but we rather tend to indicate that such effects exist and that their full explanation is complex, as complex is the surface of nanoporous carbons.
Keywords: CO2 reduction; adsorption potential; nanoporous carbons; oxygen reduction; sensing; surface chemistry; ultramicropores.