In this study, impregnation of microporous activated carbon with magnetite was achieved by co-precipitation of iron salts onto activated carbon. The evaluation of the adsorption ability of this material was examined using the anionic dye Reactive Black 5 as model dye pollutant (adsorbate). The effect of pH, ionic strength, contact time and initial dye concentration were also studied. It was found that high pH and high ionic strength favor the adsorption of Reactive Black 5. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms were well fitted by the fractal BS model and Langmuir model, respectively. The impregnation with magnetite decreases the adsorption capacity of activated carbon. Thermal re-activation of dye-loaded activated carbons was also succeeded. The characterization of the magnetic carbons was investigated by various techniques (SEM/EDAX, VSM, BET, FTIR, XRD, DTG) revealing many possible interactions in the carbon-dye system. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.