In this Study. the hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanopowders; prepared by chemical precipitation method were used as the adsorbent, and the potential of HAp nanopowders for phenol adsorption from aqueous solution was studied. The effect of contact time, initial phenol concentration, pH, adsorbent dosage, solution temperature and adsorbent calcining temperature on the phenol adsorption, and the adsorption kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic parameters were investigated. The results showed that the HAp nanopowders possessed good adsorption ability to phenol. The adsorption process was fast, and it reached equilibrium in 2 h of contact. The initial phenol concentration, pH and the adsorbent calcining temperature played obvious effects on the phenol adsorption capacity onto HAp nanopowders. Increase in the initial phenol concentration could effectively increase the phenol adsorption capacity. At the same time, increase in the pH to high-acidity or to high-alkalinity also resulted in the increase in the phenol adsorption capacity. Increase in the HAp dosage Could effectively increase the phenol adsorption percent. However, the higher calcining temperature of HAp nanopowders could Obviously decrease the adsorption capacity. The maximum phenol adsorption capacity was obtained as 10.33 mg/g for 400 mg/L initial phenol concentrations at pH 6.4 and 60 degrees C. The adsorption kinetic and the isotherm studies showed that the pseudo-second-order model and the Freundlich isotherm were the best choices to describe the adsorption behaviors. The thermodynamic parameters suggested that the adsorption or phenol onto HAp was physisorption, spontaneous and endothermic in nature. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.