The surface area and pore structure characteristics were investigated for a series of aliphatic- and aromatic-based polyurethane (PU) copolymers containing a macromolecular porogen (p-cyclodextrin). The bi-functional diisocyanates used as crosslinker units were: 1,6-hexamethylene, 4,4'-dicyclohexylmethane, 4,4'-diphenylmethane, 1,4-phenylene, and 1,5-naphthalene diisocyanate, respectively. The macromolecular porogen content was controlled by fixing the composition of beta-CD and varying the co-monomer mole ratio from unity to larger integer values. Nitrogen adsorption results reveal that copolymer materials with variable mole ratios (beta-CD: crosslinker) from 1:1 to 1:3 displayed relatively low BET surface areas (SA similar to 10(1) m(2)/g) and mesopore diameters (similar to 16-29 nm). In contrast, a dye adsorption method in aqueous solution with p-nitrophenol (PNP) at pH = 4.60 and 295 K provided estimates of the surface area (1.5-6.2 x 102 m2/g) for the corresponding copolymer materials. Variation of the copolymer SA was attributed to the type of diisocyanate crosslinker and its relative mole ratio. The differences in the estimated SA values from porosimetry and the UV-Vis dye adsorption method for these nanoporous copolymers were attributed to the role of solvent as evidenced by swelling of the copolymer framework in aqueous solution and the respective temperature conditions. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.