Thespesia populnea is a large tree found in the tropical regions and coastal forests of India. Its pods were used as a raw material for the preparation of activated carbon. The prepared activated carbon was used for the adsorptive removal of Orange G dye from aqueous system. The effects of various parameters such as agitation time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage were studied using response surface methodology (RSM). RSM results show that 0.54 g of activated carbon was required for the maximum adsorption of Orange G dye (17.6 mg L-1) within a time period of 4.03 h. Adsorption data were modeled using Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms. The adsorption of Orange G dye by activated carbon obeyed both Fruendlich and Langmuir isotherm. Adsorption kinetic data were tested using pseudo-zero, first, second-order and intraparticle diffusion models. Kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption followed pseudo-second-order reaction with regard to the intraparticle diffusion. FTIR spectral result indicated all the functional group except primary amines (3417 cm(-1)) and C=N (1618 cm(-1)) were involved in the adsorption process. XRD data showed that Orange G dye adsorbed activated carbon might not induce the bulk phase changes. SEM results showed that the surface of the activated carbon was turned from dark to light color after dye adsorption. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.