Magnetic powdered activated carbon (Mag-PAC) is an effective adsorbent to remove hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from water and can be recovered for reuse. However, the tradeoff between the adsorption performance of Cr(VI) and magnetic properties of Mag-PAC remains unclear. Herein, we prepared a series of Mag-PAC adsorbents containing various iron-oxide mass fractions with FeSO