Clustered micro-sphere porous beads made of cross-linked poly-4-vinylpyridine were proposed as a new style polymeric adsorbent useful for separation technology. In batch adsorption experiments, rate of adsorption of phenol on the clustered porous beads was much faster than that with conventional porous beads having a similar BET surface area. In adsorption experiments studied by a continuous flow column method, the clustered micro-sphere porous beads exhibited much sharper breakthrough curve and elution curve when compared with those obtained with the conventional porous beads. These marked differences in adsorptions were explained in terms of much smaller size of the micro-sphere porous beads. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.