In the present work, sulfur microparticles were produced by a facile method and employed as an adsorbent for removing copper(II) from ethanol-aqueous solution. The adsorption process attained equilibrium in 30 min and the pH was optimized at 4.5. Increasing initial metal concentration caused an increase in adsorption percentage, while increasing temperature caused a decrease. The adsorption process could be fitted by the sigmoidal kinetic model and be broken down into three stages: inducement, precipitation and equilibrium periods. The diffusion rate at the interface between solid and liquid phases determined the overall adsorption rate. Freundlich isothermal model could be used to describe the adsorption behavior. Furthermore, the XRD patterns and SEM images confirmed that the adsorption product is mainly a mixture of sulfur and CuSO4 with flower-like surface morphology. Results of this work suggest that the sulfur microparticle can be a promising adsorbent for the removal of copper ions in ethanol aqueous solutions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.