The different crystal forms of nitrogen doped-titanium oxide (N-TiO2) with different particle sizes were produced by precipitation-solvothermal method and their adsorption mechanism were also investigated. The adsorption kinetics showed that rutile N-TiO2 displayed higher adsorption capacity than anatase for methyl orange (MO) and its adsorption behavior followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics. The equilibrium adsorption rate of N-TiO2 for MO was well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model and the adsorption process was monolayer adsorption. The adsorption capacity decreased with increasing temperature. The average correlation coefficient was beyond 97%. The thermodynamic parameters (Delta(a)G(m)(,)(o) Delta H-a(m),(o) and Delta S-a(m)o) were calculated. It was found that anatase and rutile N-TiO2 had different adsorption enthalpy and entropy. The smaller the particle size, the greater the surface area and surface energy was, then Delta(a)G(m)(o) decreased and the standard equilibrium constant increased at the same time. The adsorption process onto different crystalline phase N-TiO2 was exothermic and non-spontaneous. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.