New separation processes with extractant microcapsules has developed quickly since the 1990s. Although there are diverse methods to prepare excellent microcapsules now, most are time and energy consuming. For the development of microcapsule extraction processes, economical and simple ways for preparing uniform extractant microcapsules are required. In this paper, the preparation of polysulfone microcapsules containing di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) by solvent evaporation method was investigated and the extraction equilibrium and kinetic characteristics for the recovery of Cu(II) from its dilute solution with the microcapsules were studied too. The results of the preparation showed that the morphology and monodispersity of microcapsules were both greatly related to the dispersion agent. The microcapsules with a mean diameter of about 10-50 mum were obtained. There are many regular concaves on the external surface, which make them look like golf balls. The extraction experiments showed that it took less than 10 min to reach equilibrium and a percentage extraction of about 0.6 was achieved in the microcapsules extraction process when the initial metal ions concentration was 10 ppm. It was almost the same percentage extraction as that of the conventional liquid-liquid extraction process under the same experimental conditions. The stability experiment showed that the microcapsules had a sufficient loading capacity for reuse and processing. By pretreatment with sodium hydroxide solution, microcapsules would be more insensitive to the surrounding acidity. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.