Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have attracted wide attention because of their serious harm to the ecological environment and human health. VOCs treatment technologies mainly include incineration,condensation,adsorption and catalytic oxidation,among which adsorption is considered to be an efficient and economical control strategy with its low cost,stable effect and renewable adsorbents. As a green,cheap and easily available carbon adsorption material,biochar has become a research hotspot.The basic adsorption characteristics of biochar were introduced,and the advantages and disadvantages of different preparation and modification methods were compared. The effects of specific surface area,pore characteristics and functional groups on VOCs adsorption by biochar were analyzed,and the mechanism of VOCs adsorption by biochar was discussed. The raw materials of biochar come from a wide range of sources,and the structural properties of biochar will be affected by the differences in the type,content and composition of raw materials,thus affecting its adsorption capacity. Biochar has rich functional groups and complex pore structure. Generally,the biochar prepared by conventional pyrolysis at appropriate temperature has high yield and good structural properties. At present,the significant modification methods of biochar include physical modification and chemical modification,and the modified biochar has high VOCs adsorption properties. In general,the larger the specific surface area of biochar is,the better the adsorption performance is; the larger the pore size is,the more favorable for the adsorption of macromolecular VOCs is,but when the pore size is much larger than the diameter of VOCs molecules,the intermolecular adsorption weakens; the smaller the pore size is,the more favorable for the adsorption of small molecules VOCs is,but too small pore size will also increase the diffusion resistance of VOCs. The biochar have better adsorption properties due to the larger specific surface area,appropriate pore size and targeted modification according to the polarity of the adsorbed VOCs gas. The adsorption mechanism of biochar on VOCs mainly includes the adsorption of carbonization zone and the distribution of non-carbonized organic matter. The distribution is the main mechanism when the carbonization temperature is less than 300 ℃. The larger the specific surface area is,the more developed the pore structure is,which is more conducive to physical adsorption; Chemisorption is generally achieved through the formation of chemical bonds (such as hydrogen bond,π—π). Multi-component VOCs will have competitive adsorption,and the gas with strong adsorption affinity will replace the gas with weak affinity. The research of biochar in related fields is mainly focused on the experimental stage in the laboratory. Due to the problems of raw material transportation and secondary pollution,biochar adsorption is not yet mature in industry. The future research direction of biochar adsorption of VOCs is developing targeted modified biochar,new environment-friendly biochar composites,reducing the production cost of biochar materials and conducting simulation research at the molecular level.