Abstract: The introduction of nitrogen functional groups on carbon materials can effectively improve carbon materials for dye adsorption performance.We used alkali lignin(AL) as raw material, KOH as an activator, chitosan(CS) for nitrogen source to prepare nitrogen-doped lignin-based activated carbon(N-LAC), the performance of activated carbon was characterized by SEM, XPS and N₂ adsorption-desorption experiments. Experimental results show that N-LAC is dominated by micropore, and nitrogen addition increases the surface porosity of activated carbon. When the preparation conditions are KOH to alkali lignin ratio of 2∶1, account for 30% of chitosan(alkali lignin mass fraction ratio), activation temperature of 800 ℃, and activation time of 2 h, specific surface area is 1 457.79 m²/g, total pore volume is 0.789 cm³/g, micropore volume is 0.612 cm³/g, and average pore size is 2.165 nm. Nitrogen is mainly in the forms of pyrrole nitrogen(N-5) and pyridine nitrogen(N-6), and the doping of nitrogen will reduce the graphitization degree of activated carbon. The N-LAC was applied to the adsorption experiments of methyl orange(MO) and methylene blue(MB), and the adsorption kinetics showed that, N-LAC adsorbed MO according to the intra-particle diffusion model, mainly based on surface adsorption; N-LAC adsorbed MB according to the quasi-second-order kinetic model.