Effect of dosing powder activated carbon (PAC) on the characteristics of the sludge mixed liquor in membrane bioreactor (MBR) was investigated by parallel tests. And the reason that PAC mitigated membrane fouling was also explored. The results showed that PAC could decrease mixture viscosity and increase sludge particle size, which led to less trans-membrane pressure developing. Extracellular polymer substances (EPS) content, sludge specific resistance and cake layer resistance (R(c)) had a good correlation. Adding PAC could decrease EPS concentration, sludge specific resistance and then slow down the increase of R(c), which mitigated membrane fouling. Membrane pore blocking resistance (R(p)) increased exponentially with increasing of the soluble microbial products (SMP) concentration in the supernatant. Dosing PAC reduced the SMP concentration and slowed down the growth rate of R(p), which was helpful to mitigating membrane fouling. R(c) and R(p) increased along with the operation of MBRs and R(c)/R(f) (26.32% -63.16%) was always greater than R(p)/R(f) (7.89% -35.32%) which suggested the R(c) was the main factor in membrane fouling. Moreover, it was also found that controlling of dosing PAC on R(c) was better than it on R(p).