Efficient adsorptive removal of phenol by a diethylenetriamine-modified hypercrosslinked styrene–divinylbenzene (PS) resin from aqueous solution

► A diethylenetriamine-modified hypercrosslinked PS resin was synthesized. ► More excellent equilibria, kinetics and dynamics of HJ-M05 than the others. ► Equilibria, kinetics and dynamics characterized by several models. ► Surface energetic heterogeneity characterized by the Do’s model. ► Good agreement between dynamic and equilibrium capacities. Phenol is a typical organic pollutant in industrial wastewater and efficient adsorptive removal of phenol from aqueous solution has attracted many attentions in recent years. In the present study, a diethylenetriamine-modified hypercrosslinked styrene–divinylbenzene (PS) resin, HJ-M05, was synthesized, characterized and evaluated for adsorptive removal of phenol from aqueous solution, and two typical commercial polymeric adsorbents, Amberlite XAD-4 and XAD-7, were employed as references. The equilibrium capacity on HJ-M05 was much larger than those on XAD-4, XAD-7 and the precursor, HJ-55. The degree of the surface energetic heterogeneity of HJ-M05 was proven to be higher than XAD-4 and XAD-7 while the adsorbate–adsorbate interaction of the adsorbed phenol molecules on HJ-M05 was much less than that on XAD-4 and XAD-7. The kinetic data on HJ-M05 could be well plotted by the micropore diffusion model while those on XAD-4 and XAD-7 could not be fitted by this model. Thomas and Yoon models were more suitable for describing the dynamic data than the Clark model and the dynamic capacities on HJ-M05, HJ-55, XAD-4 and XAD-7 were calculated to be 201.7, 178.1, 107.5 and 74.80mg/g dry resin, respectively. 15.0BV (1BV=10ml) 1% of sodium hydroxide could regenerate the HJ-M05 resin column completely and the dynamic desorbed amount was almost equal to the dynamic adsorption amount.