In this work, a low cost activated carbon was prepared from date stones char (DSAC) under microwave induced KOH chemical activation. The activation step was performed at the microwave input power of 600W and irradiation time of 8 min. Porous texture, surface and functional characteristics were analyzed by N-2 adsorption, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and equilibrium studies. Adsorption isotherm was fitted by Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherm models. Result showed that the monolayer adsorption capacity of the DSAC for methylene blue was 316.11 mg/g, while the BET surface area, Langmuir surface area and total pore volume of DSAC were 856 m(2)/g, 1275 m(2)/g and 0.4680 cm(3)/g, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.