A novel, convenient synthesis, using copper ions, is described for the multigram-scale preparation of acryloyl and methacryloyl ornithine and lysine without the need to use protecting groups and chromatographic purifications. Three methods of removing the copper ions from the amino acid derivatives were examined. The obtained acryloyl and methacryloyl ornithine and lysine were copolymerized with N-isopropylacrylamide and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide as crosslinking agents, resulting in a series of hydrogels with varying incorporated amino acid content. The relative content of a given amino acid was estimated from the 1H NMR data and compared with its molar fraction used in the polymerization process. We investigated the influence of the amount of amino acid groups incorporated into the polymer network on the swelling behavior of the gels in the presence of metal ions of different ability to form complexes (Cu2+, Co2+, and Ca2+) with a-amino acid groups and the sorption of copper ions. Next, the presence of a-amino acid groups attached to the polymer network was used to bond the compounds which can cocomplex metal ions. Phenylalanine was selected for examination of its cocomplexation of Cu2+ with the polymer-network amino acids and its consecutive release from the gel after appropriate change of pH. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 50: 542-550, 2012