In the present paper, we prepared a novel porous membrane adsorbent (PEI/SA) by immobilizing polyethyleneimine (PEI) with sodium alginate (SA), then further functionalized PEI/SA with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and tested its adsorption performance for removing Cu(II). To investigate the adsorption kinetics of Cu(II) onto this newly developed PEI/SA, we performed a series of batch experiments under various conditions: solution pH, adsorbent dose, initial Cu(II) concentration, adsorption temperature, and contact time. The results show that the maximum adsorption capacity of Cu(II) onto the PEI/SA is approximate 329.8 mg/g, which is 7 times more than that of pristine SA porous membrane. We also examined the Lagergren pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, the intra-particular diffusion model, and the Crank model to study the mechanism of adsorption process. Kinetics experiments indicate that the pseudo-second-order model displays the best correlation with adsorption kinetics data. The Crank model shows that the intra-particle solute diffusion is the main rate-controlling step. Furthermore, our adsorption equilibrium data could be better described by the Freundlich equation. Effect of ionic strength on adsorption process is weakly. Co-existing Cd(II), Ni(II) and Cr(VI) ions hardly affect the adsorption capacity of PEI/SA towards Cu(II). The reusability experiments show that the PEI/SA has excellent adsorption-desorption efficiencies. The results indicate that the prepared PEI/SA is promising for Cu(II) removal, from the viewpoints of low cost and easy operation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.