Activated carbons with high mesoporosity and abundant oxygen-containing functional groups were prepared from water hyacinth using H-3 PO4 activation (WHAC) to eliminate Pb(II) in water. Characterizations of the WHAC were performed using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The BET analysis showed that WHAC possesses a high mesoporosity (93.9%) with a BET surface area of 423.6 m(2)/g. The presence of oxygen-containing functional groups including hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl and phosphate groups renders the WHAC a favorable adsorbent for Pb(II) with the maximum monolayer capacity (q.) 118.8 mg/g. The adsorption behavior follows pseudo-first order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm. The desorption study demonstrated that the WHAC could be readily regenerated using 0.1 M HC1 (pH = 1.0). The desorbed WHAC could be reused at least six times without significant adsorption capacity reduction. The adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic with AG (-0.27, -1.13, -3.02, -3.62, -5.54, and -9.31 kJ/mol) and AH (38.72 kJ/mol). Under the optimized conditions, a small amount of the adsorbent (1.0 g/L) could remove as much as 90.1% of Pb(II) (50 mg/L) in 20 min at pH 6.0 and temperature of 298 K. Therefore, the WHAC has a great potential to be an economical and efficient adsorbent in the treatment of lead-contaminated water. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.