Abstract: The activated carbon with low cost and high performance was prepared by chemical activation of salix psammophila in order to improve utilization value of the biomass. Three kinds of activators were employed and their adsorption performance of methylene blue (MB) were investigated. The effects of temperature and pH value on adsorption, adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics studied. The experimental results indicated that activated carbon from different activators had different ability in methylene blue adsorption. When using KOH, H3PO4 and ZnCl2 as activators, adsorption capacities were 519.63, 347.13 and 323.45 mg/g, respectively. Adsorption behavior of activated carbon conformed to the pseudo-second-order kinetics with good correlation and fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. The increasing of pH value and temperature was beneficial for adsorption process.