Activated carbons have been prepared from petroleum cokes by the combination of a chemical treatment with HClO4 or H2O2 and a chemical activation with KOH at a constant KOH/coke ratio of 3/1. The influence of different chemical treatments on the properties of the activated carbon precursors and final carbons activated with KOH was invested by using XRD, FTIR, and BET techniques. XRD results indicated that the value of interplanar distance d(002) increased by chemical treatment and the disappearance of the peak corresponding to 0 0 2 faces correlated to high specific surface area. FTIR studies showed that chemical modification promoted the formation of surface oxygen functionalities. Significant effects on BET surface area, pore texture and iodine adsorption capacity were evidenced. The results show that chemical modification prior to activation dramatically increased the BET surface area and total pore volume of the resulting activated carbon. Modified petroleum coke based activated carbon with chemical activation had higher specific surface area (2336 m(2)/g) and better iodine adsorption value (1998 mg/g). (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.