The importance of finding alternative materials to remediation of natural and waste waters is undoubted nowadays. The search for inexpensive and renewable substances that could grab metal ions and safely return the used waters to be used again is a matter of great importance. The properties of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) renewable, inexpensive and water soluble biopolymer, in the absence and in the presence of some metal ions that have varying industrial applications, are reported in this work. Potentiometric and ultraviolet-visible titrations were performed in aqueous solutions of CMC in the absence and in the presence of Cu2+, VO2+ and Mo6+ obtaining the values of the logarithms of the binding constants (stepwise formation constants) considering the complexation towards the monomeric sugar repeating units of CMC (HL) as follows, 10.63 +/- 0.08, 12.08 +/- 0.02 and 15.89 +/- 0.03 for ML, when M was Cu2+, VO2+ and Mo6+, respectively. For ML2, the calculated values were 8.54 +/- 0.08 and 9.1 +/- 0.1 for Cu2+ and VO2+, respectively. Other binding constants were detected and their values calculated. The quantitatively obtained infrared spectra of the solids precipitated from aqueous systems revealed decreasing intensity in the -OH and -COOH bands as the pH values of the solution in which the solids were obtained were raised. These results matched the species distribution diagrams obtained in the aqueous studied systems. Also the solids were inspected for their thermal behavior and the results showed a more thermally stable complex species than the CMC alone. Scanning Electron Microscopy showed stable, compact and homogeneous films. CMC will be employed as a remediation agent in different aqueous solutions containing metal ions and the results will be released soon. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.