Hydrophobic porous polymer resins based on DVB and methyl acrylate (MA) could be prepared as water-wettable or swellable materials by using purified divinylbenzene (DVB, 98.8%). Consequently, the interior surface of the MA/DVB resins thus obtained, without prior wetting of the resins with a water-miscible organic solvent, is accessible to water, and hence, to solute present in an aqueous solution. The adsorption behavior of the MA/DVB resins was therefore investigated by focusing on the comparison between the resins with and without prewetted, using caffeine and phenol as model adsorbates. The adsorption behavior of the MA/DVB resins without prewetted in an aqueous solution was found to correlate well with the wetting ability of the resins in water, and thus was affected by the MA/DVB ratio, or the DVB and MA contents of the resins. The results suggest that a well water-wettable porous MA/DVB resin could be applied, in a dry state, to the adsorption from water by direct contact with the aqueous solution, without diminishing the ability of the resin to adsorb the solutes. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.