Acetoin is a high value-added product widely used in the food industry. Recovery of acetoin from the aqueous solution based on a polymeric adsorbent is an efficient method. Hence, a novel hypercross-linked resin was prepared and the adsorption behaviors of acetoin on the resin were investigated systematically. The results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of acetoin onto the resin decreased with increasing temperature, ranged from 192 to 102 mg/g. Batch kinetic experiments revealed that the adsorption process was rapid and the equilibrium was reached in 30 min. The intraparticle diffusion and macropore diffusion models were used to predict the adsorption process. The simulation results showed that the macropore diffusion was the adsorption-rate controlling step. The obtained diffusivity (0.77 x 10(-8) m(2)/min at the temperature of 293.15 K) had the same magnitude as the acetoin molecular diffusivity, indicating that the mass transfer into the resin pores was occurred by molecular diffusion. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.