In this study, cotton boll was used as an adsorbent for the aim of removing of the Cu(II) ions from the aqueous solutions. The adsorption process was carried out in a batch process and the effects of contact time (2-24 h), adsorbent concentration (1-20 g l(-1)), initial pH (2.0-6.0), initial metal ion concentration (20-160 mg l(-1)) and temperature (20-45 degrees C) on the adsorption were investigated. Experimental results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity was determined at pH 5.0 and adsorbed Cu(II) ion concentration was increased with increasing adsorbent concentration and contact time. The isothermal data of cotton boll could be well described by the Langmuir equations and the Langmuir monolayer capacity had a mean value of 11.40 mg g(-1). Experimental results indicated that the pseudo-second order reaction model provided the best description of the data with a correlation coefficient 0.99 for different initial metal concentrations and therefore it was explained that chemical sorption was the basic mechanism in this system. FT-IR results showed that oxygen and nitrogen atoms in structure of cotton boll were involved in Cu(H) ions adsorption. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.