Acid treated mesoporous carbon foams, with surface areas (S-BET) as high as 2207 m(2) g(-1), were synthesised by the carbonisation of fructose over ZnCl2 templates and tested as adsorbents of Pb(II) ions from aqueous solutions. Whilst the oxidising acid treatment disrupted the morphology of the foams, it also led to a proliferation of oxide moieties on the surface of the material which acted as binding sites for Pb(II) ions. Characterisation of the oxidised surfaces by IR spectroscopy and measurement of the zero point charge (pH(pzc)) showed that the number of acidic surface sites increased with increasing acid concentration and temperature. The oxidised carbon foams were tested for their efficiency at removing Pb(II) ions from aqueous solutions, using batch adsorption techniques. The concentration dependence of Pb(II) ion uptake by the mesoporous carbon adsorbents could be fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich and DubininKaganer-Radushkevich (DKR) isotherms, from which the maximum adsorption capacity (Q(m)) and the energy of adsorption (E-a) was derived. E-a values obtained for the mesoporous carbon adsorbents were associated with weak adsorption (<8 kJ mol(-1)), ion exchange adsorption (8-16 kJ mol(-1)) and chelation (>16 kJ mol(-1)) depending on the surface oxidation conditions used. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.