Preparation of Ag dendrites on the surface of chelating copolymer membranes (PBAGI), which was synthesized by using the soap-free emulsion copolymerization of n-butylacrylate (BA) and acrylonitrile (AN), as well as 2-methacrylic acid 3-(bis-carboxymethylamino)-2-hydroxy-propyl ester (GMA-IDA) that was used as a chelating group, is presented in this study. The characteristics of polymer membranes were investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and elementary analysis (EA). The weight fraction of GMA-IDA in the polymer was 4.2 wt% as revealed by elemental analysis. The chelating group, -N(CH2COO-Na+)(2) on the polymer was used to coordinate different amounts of Ni(II), controlled by different chelating times and subsequently reduced to Ni nanoparticles, as templates for growing Ag nanocrystals from 1.67 wt%AgNO3 aqueous solution with 55.7 ppm poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) added. In addition, the effect of Ni2+ concentration on the growth of the Ag dendrites was studied. Crystallinity and morphology of Ag dendrites were examined with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), respectively. Amount of Ag dendrites increased with the increasing of Ni nanoparticles on the PBAGI membrane or the dose of Ni2+ present in the aqueous solution. Notable, under higher amount of Ni nanoparticles (over 200 mmol Ni2+/g PBAGI membrane), Ag dendrites could be successful grown on the membrane. However, higher dose of Ni2+ (over 41.3 ppm) might inhibit the growth of Ag dendrites. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.