Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) with tunable pores were synthesized by a soft-template method with F127 as a template and boric acid as a pore regulator agent. The prepared samples were characterized by small-angle X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and N2 adsorptiondesorption. The results show that the OMCs had well ordered, two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal structures and the pore sizes were finely tunable in the range 3.44.7 nm when boric acid was used as the pore regulator agent. The adsorption experiments showed that the OMCs had a strong adsorption affinity to naphthalene and the maximum adsorption amount was shown to reach up to 303.2 mg/g. Furthermore, the mesopore volume between 2 and 3.5 nm of OMCs was crucial to the adsorption capacity, and OMCs with pore sizes of 23.5 nm were much more favorable for the naphthalene adsorption process. The adsorption isotherms of naphthalene on OMCs matched well with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Theoretical studies showed that the adsorption kinetics of naphthalene on OMCs accounted well for the use of the Langmuir adsorption kinetics equation. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012