Abstract: Waste tobacco stalks were employed as a biomass precursor to prepare a series of porous carbon materials (denoted as CSB-X) using different chemical activating agents (KOH, K2CO3, and ZnCl2). The adsorption performance of the porous carbon materials toward menthol was systematically evaluated. The structures and properties of the carbon materials were characterized using many technologies, such as SEM, TEM, BET, XRD, Raman, and XPS, etc. And the adsorption experiment was also conducted. The results showed that: 1) The KOH-activated carbon (CSB-KOH) exhibited a well-developed microporous structure (specific surface area of 2 481 m²/g) along with a high defect density (ID/IG=3.3) and an abundance of surface hydroxyl functional groups. 2) CSB-KOH achieved a high menthol adsorption capacity of 826.3 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model, and the adsorption behavior was consistent with the Langmuir isotherm model, indicating a monolayer molecule-dominated adsorption process. Structure-performance relationship analysis revealed that KOH activation significantly increased the specific surface area, and created well-developed microporosity, higher defect density, and rich surface functional groups of the CSB-KOH carbon material. These structural features synergistically improved effective adsorption sites, resulting in superior adsorption capacity of carbon material.