To study the contribution of different nitrogen-containing functional groups to enhancement of phenol adsorption, the aminated activated carbons (AC) were characterized by N2 adsorption/desorption, XPS, Boehm titration, and pH drift method and tested for adsorption behaviors of phenol. Adsorption isotherm fitting revealed that the Langmuir model was preferred for the aminated ACs. The adsorption capacity per unit surface area (q(m)/SSA(BET)) was linearly correlated with the amount of pyridinic and pyrrolic N, which suggested that these two functional groups played a critical role in phenol adsorption. The enhancement of adsorption capacity was attributed to the strengthened pi-pi dispersion between phenol and basal plane of AC by pyridinic, pyrrolic N. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudo-secondorder kinetic model, and intraparticle diffusion was one of the rate-controlling steps in the adsorption process. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.