Herein, furan- and thiophene-modified
hyper-crosslinked polymers, namely, PS-FU-HCP and PS-TH-HCP, were
successfully prepared from chloromethylated polystyrene via two-step
Friedel–Crafts alkylation reactions, and they were applied
as the adsorbents for the comparative adsorption of phenol from aqueous
solution. The first Friedel–Crafts alkylation reaction produced
abundant oxygen (O) and sulfur (S) for the polymers, and the O and
S contents were measured to be 12.7 and 9.15 wt %, respectively. The
second one created abundant new micropores for the polymers, and the
Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area (S
BET) of the polymers increased to 560 and 574 m2/g, respectively. The resulting polymers are promising for the adsorption
of phenol from aqueous solution, and the maximum capacities (q
max) reached 180.7 and 173.1 mg/g for PS-FU-HCP
and PS-TH-HCP, respectively. The kinetic curves displayed that the
adsorption attained equilibrium within 60 min and the pseudo-second-order
rate model characterized the kinetic data well with the kinetic rates
of 1.40 × 10–3 g/(mg·min) and 6.72 ×
10–4 g/(mg·min), respectively.