An amino-functionalized modified metal ion imprinting adsorbent was newly synthesized for the selective extraction and the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity of the amino-functionalized ion-imprinted adsorbent was found to be significantly more than the several adsorbents reported in the literatures. The carbon based adsorbent was characterized by SEM, TEM, XPS, Elemental analysis and FTIR respectively. The optimum pH for Cu(II) adsorption was found to be 5. The adsorption equilibrium isotherm could be described by Langmuir model, the Langmuir isotherm has shown an agreement with experimental data, and the maximum adsorption capacity of copper ions for Cu(II) imprinted adsorbent was 33.33 mg/g. The selectivity coefficients of the imprinted material for Cu(II)/Cd(II), Cu(II)/Co(II), Cu(II)/Ni(II) and Cu(II)/Zn(II) were 31.8, 90.2,38.6 and 36.1, respectively. Those were 10.6, 6.22, 7.11 and 39.2 times greater than that of non-imprinted material, respectively. The high adsorption capacity and selectivity coefficient indicated that this amino-functionalized ion-imprinted adsorbent can be used as the selective adsorbent for the removal of copper ions from wastewater. In this work, glucose, tetraethylene pentamine (TEPA) and copper ions as template are combined together with specific mole radio for preparing carbon-based adsorbent by means of hydrothermal synthesis method. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.