Combined calorimetric and adsorption techniques show that in the case of phenol adsorption from either dilute or concentrated aqueous solutions, water is always adsorbed preferentially by the oxygen-containing surface groups of the carbon. This reduces the surface and/or the micropore volume accessible to the phenol molecule and quantitatively explains the decrease in the limiting adsorption of phenol on a given carbon after oxidation. In the case of dilute solutions, as established earlier, the mechanism corresponds to the coating of the total surface (external surface and micropore walls) by a monolayer of phenol. On the other hand, for concentrated solutions (15-25% of water), one observes a process of micropore filling by phenol. Both mechanisms can be described in the framework of Dubinin's theory, which allows predictions based on simple physical and structural parameters.