Comparative study has been performed on the adsorption of Pb(II) on graphene oxides (GOs) prepared from flaky, lump and amorphous graphites with the Hummers method in this work. The GOs were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Chemical analysis, Raman spectroscopy and Atomic force microscope. The results indicated that GO prepared from amorphous graphite had lower C/O ratio and more thin layers (less than 2 nm in thickness) than those prepared from the other two natural graphites. The adsorption process was well described by the pseudo-second order kinetics model, and the equilibrium data agreed precisely with the Langmuir model. The hydroxyl and carboxyl located at the edges of GO sheets mainly participated in the complexation of Pb(II), and different GO sheets were bridged by Pb(II) through simultaneously bonding the marginal oxygenous groups. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.