A sensitive and selective colorimetric method for simultaneous detection and removal of copper (Cu(II)) ion from contaminated water samples was developed based on the functional ligand embedded mesoporous conjugate materials. The synthesized material's characterization was also presented. The conjugate materials exhibited an obvious color change from colorless to dark yellow in the presence of Cu (II) ion according to the pH values. Also, the Cu(II) ion were detected and removed through naked-eye. The prepared material exhibited significant color change upon addition of Cu(II) ion even in the presence of other competing ions, and the limit of detection was calculated to be 0.15 mu g/L. Excellent selectivity toward Cu(II) ion was observed due to a specific complex formation between Cu(II) ion and organic ligand of the conjugate materials. In Cu(II) adsorption operation, several affecting factors, including the solution pH, contact time, initial Cu(II) ion concentration, foreign ions and reuses were investigated. The results showed that the conjugate materials exhibited excellent adsorption capacity and adsorption equilibrium was reached rapidly. The adsorption results were well fitted with Langmuir adsorption isotherms and the maximum adsorption capacity by the materials for Cu(II) ion was 174.76 mg/g. We claimed from this study that Cu(II) could be successfully detected and removed by the adsorption method developed in the current work. The present work is obviously much simpler and greener than the conventional comprising multistep processes. The results demonstrated that Cu(II) ion loaded conjugate materials was effectively regenerated using HCl acid solution, and the regenerated materials was repeated to use many cycles without significant capacity loss, indicating the good stability of prepared conjugate materials. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.