Abstract: Molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for selective extraction of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-HB) was synthesized by suspension polymerization using p-HB as template, 4-vinyl pyridine as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinker. As characterized by scanning electron microscopy, the MIP particles are spherical, with size ranging from 1 to 8 μm. Compared with the non-imprinted polymer (NIP), the MIP shows higher binding capacity toward p-HB: maximum binding capacity for p-HB being 8.07 μmol g-1 over MIP and 3.88 μmol g-1 over NIP. The adsorption of p-HB on MIP follows the Freundlich model and displays pseudo-second-order kinetics. The results of selective and competitive binding experiments confirm that the molecularly imprinted sites have excellent recognition ability toward p-HB. The results reveal that the MIP is a promising adsorbent for selective extraction of p-HB from water samples. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46984