The purpose of this study was to investigate adsorption characteristics of organo-clays for removal of p-xylene. As part of efforts to examine the adsorption capacities of some organo-clays for p-xylene, batch isotherm tests were carried out. Organo-clay minerals were synthesized under hydrothermal conditions using Na-montmorillonite as host clay and dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DMDA) bromide and benzyldimethyldodecylammonium (BDDA) chloride as organic surfactants, respectively. All synthetic organo-clay minerals were characterized by powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The modification using dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DMDA) bromide showed the higher adsorption ability for p-xylene than benzyldimethyldodecylammonium (BDDA) chloride. On the other hand, the maximum adsorption capacity, $Q_{max}$ of DMDA modified montmorillonite estimated by Langmuir model was 27.0 mg/g, which was the higher value than other organo-clays.