A novel optical sensor to detect Hg2+ and Cu2+ is prepared by immobilizing a synthesized dicarboxylate 1,5-dipheny1-3-thiocarbazone (DDT) group on functionalized polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) microspheres. This optical sensor is successfully fabricated by extensive characterization with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Its colorimetric properties, selectivity, sensitivity, and reversibility are investigated as well. In this sensing system, DDT-PVA selectively recognized multiple heavy metal ions, as indicated by the changes in color from orange to scarlet for Hg2+ and from orange to gray for Cu2+. In particular, this optical sensor exhibits the most apparent color changes at pH levels of 12 and 2. Hence, Hg2+ and Cu2+ can be detected in aqueous solution at minimum detection limits of 0.053 and 0.132 mu M, respectively, with a UV-vis spectrometer. Furthermore, the sensor can be regenerated by ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid and reused several times. Therefore, the optical sensor can detect Hg2+ because of its selectivity, sensitivity, and reversibility. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.