This article reports the synthesis of N-vinylimidazole/divinylbenzene resins by suspension polymerization. Several polymerization conditions were tested to achieve a quantitative incorporation of the N-vinylimidazole monomer into the final polymer while a high specific surface area was maintained. The retention properties of several copolymers with different nitrogen contents were evaluated with the solidphase extraction of polar compounds from water samples, and the best results were obtained for a polymer containing 6.3% N with a surface area of 627 m(2) g(-1). The sorption properties of the resins were compared to those of styrene-divinylbenzene and other copolymers containing nitrogen, and the results were best for the new sorbents with N-vinylimidazole as the polar monomer. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 2019-2025, 2004.