The biosorption of Acid Orange 52 onto the leaf powder of Paulownia tomentosa Steud. was studied in a batch adsorption system to estimate the equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters as a function of solution pH, biosorbent concentration, dye concentration, biosorbent size, temperature and contact time. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherm models were used for modeling the biosorption equilibrium. The experimental equilibrium data could be well interpreted by the Temkin and Langmuir isotherms with maximum adsorption capacity of 10.5 mg g(-1). In order to state the sorption kinetics, the fits of pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models were investigated. It was obtained that the biosorption process followed the pseudo-second order rate kinetics. Thermodynamic studies indicated that this system was exothermic process. The results revealed that P. tomentosa leaf powder could be an efficient biosorbent for the treatment of wastewater containing Acid Orange 52. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.