The interactions of ligands, such as adenine, adenosine, uracil and uridine with Co(II) ions immobilized by carboxylated diaminoethyl matrix on sporopollenin were investigated as a function of temperature by the breakthrough technique. The adsorption characteristics of ligands on Co(II)carboxylated diaminoethyl sporopollenin [Co(II)-CDAE-S] were investigated by Scatchard plot analysis under optimized conditions of flow rate and temperature. Equilibrium binding data used in Scatchard plot analysis for adenosine gave rise to a linear plot, indicating the presence of specific interaction and Langmuirean behavior. However, the adsorption of uracil on this ligand-exchange stationary phase was affected by the electrostatic or hydrophobic interaction in the whole concentration range. In the case of adenine and uridine, the adsorption performance was strongly affected by the initial ligand concentration. At high concentration, adenine and uridine were adsorbed specifically to the ligand exchanger matrix exposed on the adsorbent. At lower concentrations, the binding to the second sets of adsorbent was appeared because of nonspecific interaction such as hydrophobic and electrostatic. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.