A new hyper-crosslinked resin TAMR was prepared by post-crosslinking of chloromethyl low crosslinking macroporous polystyrene and subsequent chemically modifying with tannic acid. The physicochemical structure of TAMR was elaborately characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)

elemental analysis (EA)

scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and was further morphologically characterized using BET and BJH methods.The specific surface area of TAMR was about 780.1 m2/g and the micropore specific surface area was about 482.3 m2/g. The content of phenolic hydroxyl group (OH) in TAMR was about 1.87 mmol/g. The adsorption performances and mechanism of TAMR towards phenolic compounds (phenol

p-nitrophenol and p-chlorophenol) were studied through the isotherm adsorption and batch kinetics experiments. The isotherm adsorption results showed that TAMR had good adsorption capabilities to phenol

p-nitrophenol and p-chlorophenol because of the high specific surface area and relatively abundant micropore distribution

as well as the phenolic hydroxyl groups on the surface of TAMR. The adsorption capacities of phenol

p-nitrophenol and p-chlorophenol were 1.43

2.07 and 2.48 mmol/g at 288 K (c0 was 500 mg/L)

respectively. The adsorption of phenolic compounds on TAMR was an exothermic typical physical adsorption process which was in accordance with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm equations. The phenolic compounds adsorbed onto TAMR kept constant under acidic pH conditions and descended dramatically when the solution pH turned to alkaline

especially when pH was over their pKa value. The molecular form of phenolic compounds was favorable for the adsorption. Quasi-first kinetic adsorption equation could describe the adsorption dynamics behavior perfectly

which meant inner diffusion of the particles was the major controlling step of adsorption process. The perfect regeneration adsorption performance meant that TAMR could be applied widely for treating of phenolic compounds wastewater.