Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is an antibiotic of growing environmental concern. As specific filter material for the extraction of SMX from waters, a series of SMX-imprinted polymers have been synthesised varying their composition parameters, and their efficiency to selectively remove the contaminant SMX from complex polluted water was tested. Most of the developed materials exhibited an excellent uptake of the target pollutant SMX of more than 80% or even 90% and effective separation from selected easily degradable accompanying substances even in complex wastewater mixtures. All the results for SMX uptake and release were compared to the commonly used adsorbent activated carbon (AC). (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.