Mesoporous poly(melamine-formaldehyde) (MF) particles with surface areas of up to 200 m(2) g(-1), were synthesized by an inverse emulsion polymerization using dodecane and Span80 (R) as continuous phase. The finer details of the shape control (using emulsion techniques) and the porosity control (using silica nanoparticles as hard-template) are discussed. The impact of phase-separation processes on the observable porosity of the 20-200 mu m sized spherical particles is analysed by gas sorption methods and electron microscopy. The high density of amine and triazine functional groups in the porous MF particles make the material a promising adsorber for heavy metal ions and methylene blue. In a preliminary column experiment, the synthesized material exhibited a total capacity of 2.54 mmol/g (congruent to 812.4 mg/g) for the adsorption of methylene blue. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.