The adsorption of dimethyl sulfide from an aqueous solution by a cost-effective bamboo charcoal from Dendrocalamus was studied in comparison with other carbon adsorbents. The bamboo charcoal exhibited superior adsorption on dimethyl sulfide compared with powdered activated carbons at different adsorbent dosages. The adsorption characteristics of dimethyl sulfide onto bamboo charcoal were investigated under varying experimental conditions such as particle size, contact time, initial concentration and adsorbent dosage. The dimethyl sulfide removal was enhanced from 31 to 63% as the particle size was decreased from 24-40 to >300 mesh for the bamboo charcoal. The removal efficiency increased with increasing the adsorbent dosage from 0.5 to 10 mg, and reached 70% removal efficiency at 10 mg adsorbed. The adsorption capacity (mu g/g) increased with increasing concentration of dimethyl sulfide while the removal efficiency decreased. The adsorption process conforms well to a pseudo-second-order kinetics model. The adsorption of dimethyl sulfide is more appropriately described by the Freundlich isotherm (R(2), 0.9926) than by the Langmuir isotherm (R(2), 0.8685). Bamboo charcoal was characterized by various analytical methods to understand the adsorption mechanism. Bamboo charcoal is abundant in acidic and alcohol functional groups normally not observed in PAC. A distinct difference is that the superior mineral composition of Fe (0.4 wt%) and Mn (0.6 wt%) was detected in bamboo charcoal elements not found in PAC. Acidic functional group and specific adsorption sites would be responsible for the strong adsorption of dimethyl sulfide onto bamboo charcoal of Dendrocalamus origin. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.