A comprehensive review through few decades of capacitive deionization (CDI) ever since discovery of Carbon aerogel, including a brief theory and factors influencing along with detailed focus on various electrode materials explored till now is done. The importance of suitable pore structure, high surface area, good wettability, high conductivity and quantitatively adsorb ionic components are discussed for optimal desalination performance. Specifically, porous carbon bassed materials are extensively explored as electrode materials in CDI setup, attributable to their availability, low cost and stability. This review mainly discusses the current state of the art in carbon based materials for enhanced desalination performance. Also, in this review, various carbon-based composite electrode materials, including porous carbon, porous carbon-metal oxide, carbon-polymer and carbon-polymer-metal oxide nanocomposites, are systematically investigated. Moreover, a brief outlook on the challenges and new research directions in the CDI area is also presented for researchers toward designing the high performance carbon based CDI device.