The invention relates to a method for synthesizing a heterogeneous atom doped carbon material through a one-step process. The method comprises the following steps of uniformly dispersing a carbon material and a heterogeneous atom source into water and/or ethanol to obtain a mixed solution, and carrying out hydrothermal reaction at 120-200 DEG C for 12-48 hours to prepare the heterogeneous atom doped carbon material, wherein a heterogeneous atom comprises at least one of N, S, B, P and F. The heterogeneous atom doped carbon material prepared according to the method disclosed by the invention is doped with the heterogeneous atom, keeps the original properties of the carbon material, namely surface area, aperture distribution, crystal structure and the like are basically unchanged, has good oxygen reduction property, hydrogen storage property, carbon dioxide adsorption property and the like and can be used for the fields of fuel-cell catalysts, lithium batteries, supercapacitors, absorption, gas storage and the like.