Batch adsorption runs of two commercial reactive dyes (methylene blue and reactive orange X-GN) and phenol from water onto two resin adsorbents (Amberlite XAD-4, a macroreticular adsorbent and ZCH-101, a hyper-cross-linked adsorbent) were carried out in the present study. Effect of adsorbate size and pore structure of the resin adsorbents on adsorption was discussed and Langmuir and Freundlich models were tested for the relevant adsorption isotherms. In the kinetic section concentration-time profiles were obtained to further elucidate the effect of adsorbate size and porous structure on adsorption mechanism. A pseudo-second-order model was proved to give a satisfactory description of the related kinetic results. Two-stage kinetic curve of methylene blue onto ZCH-101 was observed at a specific experimental condition and modeled schematically according to its specific pore size distribution. Furthermore, other kinetic experiments were performed at different ambient temperature to validate the proposed schematic model. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.