A novel chelating resin, polyacrylonitrile-2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole (PAN-ATD), was prepared via one-step reaction and its structure was characterized by elemental analysis and FT-IR. The adsorption properties of the resin for Hg(II) were investigated by batch and column experiments. Batch adsorption results showed that PAN-ATD had high affinity towards Hg(II) and the maximum adsorption capacity estimated from the Langmuir model was 526.9 mg/g at 308 K. The adsorption kinetic and equilibrium data were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. Furthermore, the resin can be easily regenerated and reused with less than 10% loss of adsorption capacity. Also, the resin and its metal complexes were studied by SEM, TGA, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). With good overall properties (a high selectivity adsorption capacity, easy to be regenerated and stable application capacity) PAN-ATD resin can not only be used in selective removal of Hg(II) from waste solution, but also be used for preparation of the separation and enrichment column applied in the analysis and detection area. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.