Abstract An activated boron nitride (BN) adsorbent was prepared via a facile rapid pyrolysis reaction. The as-prepared activated BN displayed unique atomic arrangements with short-range order and long-range disorder, which possessed more surface active atoms. It was found that activated BN adsorbent displayed an outstanding adsorptive desulfurization performance towards dibenzothiophene (DBT) (42.2 mgS g−1 adsorbent for the 500 ppm sulfur model oil), which was higher than that of graphene-like BN adsorbent (30.0 mgS g−1 adsorbent). Besides, the obtained activated BN adsorbent exhibited excellent selectivity and recyclability for removal of sulfur compound. These results demonstrated that activated BN is a desired adsorbent for adsorptive desulfurization and this strategy can be extended to the purposive preparation of other efficient adsorbents.