The aim of this study is to demonstrate the potential of oak wood charcoal (WC) and oak wood charcoal ash (WCA) as a low-cost adsorbent for environmental protection applications of Cr(VI) ion. The influence of contact time, solution pH, initial metal concentration, amount of adsorbent and ionic strength on the removal of Cr(VI) ion was studied. The adsorption of Cr(VI) with (WC) and (WCA) was investigated in a batch arrangement. The Cr(VI) ions sorbed onto the adsorbents were determined by a UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. The sorption of Cr(VI) on the adsorbent surface depends strongly on the pH and Cr(VI) ion-sorption increased with a decreasing pH until pH 2 and increase in the concentration of this metal in solution phase. The adsorption of Cr(VI) was higher between pH 2.0 and 2.5 for both adsorbents. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm was used to describe observed sorption phenomena. The maximum adsorption capacity of 30.10 mg of Cr(VI)/g for (WC) and 46.17 mg of Cr(VI)/g for (WCA) was obtained at pH of 2 and 2.5 respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.