In this work, a novel activated carbon(AC)/ferrospinel composite adsorbent was prepared by a low-temperature refluxing method in the presence of AC suspension. Adsorption characteristics of the as-synthesized composite were examined by using methyl orange (MO) and basic fuchsin (BF) as adsorbates. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to investigate kinetics and isotherms of dye adsorption onto the composite. Adsorption equilibrium studies showed that adsorption of MO and BF followed the Langmuir model. The monolayer adsorption capacities were 95.8 and 101.0 mg g(-1) for MO and BF, respectively. The adsorption kinetics was best described by the pseudo-second-order model. The results indicated that the as-synthesized composite could be considered a promising adsorbent for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.