A novel post-crosslinked polymeric adsorbent PDM-2 was prepared by Friedel-Crafts reaction of pendant vinyl groups without external crosslinking agent. Both the specific surface area and the pore volume of starting copolymer PDM-1 increased significantly after post-crosslinking. Batch adsorption runs of phenol from aqueous solution onto PDM-1 and PDM-2 were investigated. Commercial macroporous resins XAD-4 and AB-8 were chosen as the comparison. Experimental results showed that isotherms of phenol adsorption onto these four polymeric adsorbents could be represented by Freundlich model reasonably. PDM-2 exhibited higher adsorption capacity of phenol than other three adsorbents, which resulted from synergistic effect of larger specific surface area and polar groups on the network. The adsorption process for phenol was proved to be exothermic and spontaneous in nature. Thermodynamic parameters such as Gibb's free energy (Delta G), change in enthalpy (Delta H) and change in entropy (Delta S) were calculated. Kinetics studies indicated that phenol uptake onto PDM-1 and PDM-2 followed the pseudo-second order model and the intraparticle diffusion process was a rate-controlling step. Column adsorption runs demonstrated that nearly 100% regeneration efficiency for PDM-2 by 3 BV industrial alcohol and the adsorbate phenol can be easily recovered by further distilling. Continuous column adsorption-regeneration cycles indicated negligible capacity loss of PDM-2 during operation. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.