A parent activated carbon (C-0) was subjected to four different treatments: (i) heat treatment at 1273 K in Ar (C-1); (ii) heat treatment at 473 K in air (C-2); (iii) oxidation with H2O2 (C-3) and, (iv) oxidation with HNO3 (C-4). These materials were evaluated as supports of CuBr-[1,1,4,7,10,10-hexamethyltriethylenetetramine] ((CuBr)-Br-1-HMTETA), a catalyst for the Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) using methyl-alpha-bromophenylacetate (MBP) as radical initiator. The supported catalysts showed an adequate control of polymerization, evidenced by polydispersity indexes (PDI) falling in the range 1.13-1.55. The best performance was achieved when activated carbon was treated with nitric acid (C-4) and with air at 473 K (C-2). Some copper leaching was always detected. The catalysts were reused and an adequate polymerization control was obtained in subsequent runs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.