In this work magnetic cellulose xantate was prepared with two difference routes, i.e fabrication of Fe3O4@ cellulos followe dby preparation of xanthate, and a one step approach by adding iron source to cellulose xanthate solution. The cellulose acts as both as reducing agent to convert Fe3+ ions Fe2+ and template for growth of Fe3O4. The prepared composites were characterized by SEM, XRD, VSM, EDS, TGA, and FT IR techniques. Magnetic sorbents were applied for adsorption of silver from acidic medium, and results revealed that the one step prepared composite has better performance in comparions with Fe3O4@cellulose xanthate, as the maximum adsorption capacity with 5 min extraction time was 166 and 15.6 mg g is 252, 748, 2543, 924, 3837, and 26.6 respectively Moreover, the reusability of the sorbent was investigated by elution the sorption and desorption. Finally this method was applied to analyze the silver ions in tap water, dental radiology agent, and synthetic samples.