A hydrophilic emulsion-templated porous polymer (polyHIPE) is synthesized by CuAAC click chemistry. Herein, a 4,4-diazidostilbene-2,2-disulfonic acid disodium salt-4H(2)O (DAS) and tripropargylamine in the mixture of water and N,N-dimethylformamide solution is used as external phase of the high internal phase emulsion template, and paraffin liquid is involved as the internal phase. The resulting polyHIPE has a well-defined interconnected pore structure, which could be tailored by changing preparation parameters, such as reagent content, internal phase volume fraction, and surfactant concentration. Thermal analysis shows that the polyHIPE is stable under 180 degrees C. Owing to the presence of a large number of sodium sulfonate groups from the reagent DAS and the triazoles groups produced in the reaction, the polyHIPE is proved to be a highly efficient adsorbent of heavy metal ion (i.e., up to 52 mg/g for Cu(II) ions) in water. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 2129-2135