Abstract: The surface of activated carbon (AC) was improved with chemical modification by HNO3 oxidation and loading with metallic ions. The adsorption property for organic sulfur complexes in gasoline was studied. The results show that the surface acidity groups of activated carbon increase considerably by HNO3 treatment. The carboxyl groups increase 11~17 times by 4mol/L~8mol/L nitric acid than by 0.5mol/L one. The BET surface area (SBET) of AC decreases from 667.6m2·g-1 to 372m2·g-1. After loading with metallic ions the SBET of AC decreases in different extent. The adsorbing ability of a sulfur compound will be better by choose of loading a specific metallic ions based on the characters of organic sulfur complexes. The AC loading with Fe3+ exhibits a good adsorption performance, with removal ratio of 85.1%, to sulfur complexes of thiophene that is difficult to be removed from gasoline.