Three biosorbents, crab carapace, the macroalgae Fucus vesiculosus and peat were compared with two commercial materials, an activated-carbon and an ion-exchange resin for the removal of copper from aqueous media. Kinetic models of Lagergren first-order, pseudo-second order and intraparticular diffusion were used to model the data. The process for all materials is best represented by the pseudo-second order rate model. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were used to describe the sorption equilibrium data. Maximum uptake values were 79.4, 114.9 and 71.4 mg g(-1) for crab carapace, F vesiculosus and ion-exchange resin, respectively. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models could not be fitted to the experimental data for peat and activated-carbon. Ion-exchange was calculated to contribute similar to 75%, 77% and 44% to the total biosorption by crab carapace, F vesiculosus and peat, respectively. The removal efficiencies of crab carapace and F vesiculosus were > 95% and comparable with those achieved using ion-exchange resin. Results from this study suggest that both crab carapace and F vesiculosus are efficient and effective biosorbent materials for the removal of copper from aqueous solutions and given that they are also low-cost, may be considered viable alternatives to activated-carbon and ion-exchange resin. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.