A novel nitrogen-containing graphitic mesoporous carbon was prepared through Mno-templated method using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as both carbon and nitrogen sources, and MnCO 3 as both template and catalyst precursors. The effects of preparation conditions on the physicochemical properties of obtained samples were systematically investigated. the results showed that as the decrease of the weight ratios of PAN and MnO (2:1-1:4), the increase of carbonization temperature (700-900 °C) and pre-oxidation temperature (180-200 °C), the samples had higher specific surface area, mesopores volume and ratios, up to 507 m 2 /g, 0.824 cm 3 /g and 96.83%, respectively. Moreover, the prepared samples presented relatively high graphitic degree and nitrogen contents (~2.21%). The adsorption capacity for acid red 88 (AR88) was as high as 309 mg/g, which were dramatically affected by the mesoporous properties and c-and n-containing groups on the surface of prepared carbon. the rich graphic carbon and pyridine-n in mesoporous carbon generated π-π dispersion and electrostatic interaction with AR88, respectively, which jointly were responsible for the adsorption process. The results of the isotherm and kinetic studies indicated that the AR88 adsorption on mesoporous carbon could be well depicted using Langmuir model and pseudo-2 nd -order model.Recently, the demand for dyes is increasing, with the fast development of industries, including textile, printing, paper making, cosmetic, etc. The dye wastewater has gradually become one of the vital pollutants, which seriously affects both human beings' health and environment. Thus, it is significantly important for the removal of dye pollutants from wastewater before discharging into environment. However, it is a great challenge to treat dye wastewater, because of its high resistance to photo-degradation, oxidation and bio-degradation 1 . It was reported that the adsorption by mesoporous carbon (i.e. pores size from 2 to 50 nm) is a desirable method for the removal of dye pollutants with large molecules diameters, with many advantages such as easy operation, high efficiency, and the recycle of dye 2-4 . In comparison with the microporous adsorbent, the mesoporous carbon possessed higher adsorption capacity for the large dye molecules 5-7 . The adsorption rate could also be significantly enhanced by introducing the mesoporous structure into the carbon materials 8 .Normally, various hard templates including zeolites, mesoporous silica are used to prepare the mesoporous carbon by removing these ordered structural frameworks. This strategy has been given extensive attention in the literature due to the high stability of templates and precise control for porous structure 9 . However, when removing these hard templates, some strong corrosive agents like hydrofluoric acid and sodium hydroxide are used, which will always cause unavoidable corrosion, and the templates are obliged to be wasted 10 . In this way, the high preparation cost of the template method seriously hinders its application in practi...