We report an effective approach for tailoring the pore textural properties and surface polarity of a hypercrosslinked resin to enhance its adsorption capacity and selectivity for removing salicylic acid from aqueous solution. Four hypercrosslinked resins were synthesized by controlling the reaction time of the self Friedel-Crafts reaction of chloromethylated polystyrene-co-divinylbenzene, and then modified with diethylenetriamine to adjust their surface polarity. The resins were characterized with N-2 adsorption for pore textural properties, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) for surface functional groups, chemical analysis for residual chlorine content and weak basic exchange capacity. Adsorption equilibrium, kinetics and breakthrough performance were determined for the removal of salicylic acid from aqueous solution on a selected resin HJ-M01. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of salicylic acid on HJ-M01 is significantly higher than that on its precursor HJ-11 and a few commercial adsorbents including AB-8, XAD-4 and XAD-7. The dynamic adsorption capacity of salicylic acid on HJ-M01 was found to be 456.4 mg/L at a feed concentration of 1000 mg/L and 294 K. The used resin could be fully regenerated with 1% sodium hydroxide solution. The hypercrosslinked resins being developed were promising alternatives to commercial adsorbents for removing salicylic acid and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from aqueous solution. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.