Highly ordered mesoporous variety of silica SBA-15 (Santa Barbara Acid - 15) has been prepared from sugarcane leaf ash by template assisted method and it has been successfully used as an adsorbent for nickel. Post-synthesis modification of the particle is done by grafting of carboxyl, amino, thiol and phenyl groups through siloxypropane tethers to the siliceous surface of SBA-15. Adsorption efficiency of products is estimated in batch mode and compared. Maximum percentage removal (92.5%) is obtained with amine functionalised SBA-15 with an initial Ni (II) concentration of 80 mg/L at a pH value of 5. The Freundlich isotherm model describes the equilibrium well.