Three sets of activated carbons (ACs) were prepared with the same precursor but activated differently (by CO 2 or water vapour) with various burn-off levels. The ACs demonstrate increased deviation of the pore shape from the slitshaped model with increasing burn-off and contributions of pores of different sizes depending on the activation type. Significant re-arrangement of adsorption complexes, especially of the Van der Waals type characteristic for nonpolar or weakly polar adsorbates (H 2 , CH 4 , CH 2 Cl 2 , CHCl 3 ), occurs in both micropores and mesopores of ACs with decreasing temperature. The behaviour of their mixtures with Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (