In this study, tannin extracted from Terminalia chebula (Aralu) was used to produce tannin-phenolformaldehyde resins. They were produced to obtain resins with different tannin to phenol ratio in an attempt to optimize the ion exchange capacities of resins produced. The resins made were sulfonated to improve their properties further. Bivalent cations, such as Zn2+, Pb2+, Cat(2+), Mg2+, and Cu2+, were used to estimate the adsorption properties of both unsulfonated and sulfonated resins. The glass transitions of representative resins were estimated using differential scanning calorimeter thermograms. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis was used to gauge changes on resins by sulfonation and adsorption of cations. The glass transition values of unsulfonated, sulfonated, and metal-adsorbed sulfonated resins showed a similar increasing trend with the increase of phenol content in the resin. The glass transition temperature values reach a plateau beyond the tannin/phenol ratio of 1 : 0.5, indicating the formation of large molar masses facilitating entanglements beyond that ratio. The phenol ratio of 1 : 0.5 has shown the highest adsorption capacity for all the metal ions used. The highest adsorption capacity was shown for sulfonated tannin-phenol-formaldehyde resin with the tannin/phenol ratio of 1 : 0.5 for Pb2+, which is 0.610 meq/g. The adsorption equilibrium data obtained using the column technique were found fitting Freundlich isotherm. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 115: 1081-1088, 2010