High concentrations of Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) can be found in wastewater from Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display and semiconductor manufacturing processes. To treat this corrosive and toxic pollutant, the current biological wastewater treatment processes are still not satisfactorily effective. Therefore, graphene oxide (GO) is proposed to remove TMAH from water via adsorption process. In this study, GO is synthesized and characterized by SEM, TEM, N-2 adsorption/desorption, Raman and FT-IR spectroscopies, XPS, TGA, Zeta potential as well as Boehm Titration. Oxygen-containing groups on the surface of GO are found to have a strong affinity for absorbing TMAH. Various effects on the adsorption capacity of GO are investigated including solid/liquid ratio, contact time, agitation speed, ionic strength and pH of solutions. The adsorption mechanism of TMAH to GO could be attributed to ion exchange between TMA(+) of the solution and H+ of the oxygen-containing groups of GO. GO also can be readily regenerated using NaCl solutions. Regeneration efficiency can reach similar to 94%. GO also exhibits an adsorption capacity of 156 mg/g which is almost 2 times the adsorption capacity of activated carbon, showing a promising and efficient capability to remove TMAH from water. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.