For specific recognition of protein, novel rattle-type magnetic hollow molecular imprinted poly (ionic liquids) nanospheres have been prepared, and bovine serum albumin was selected as the model protein. The rattle-type magnetic Fe3O4@void@PILMIP nanospheres were synthesized by the hard templating method, and characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR, TGA, and VSM. The as-prepared Fe3O4@void@PILMIP nanospheres could be responsive to external magnetic field, environmental temperature and pH. The results of adsorption isotherm and kinetics showed that the Fe3O4@void@PILMIP nanospheres possessed good recognition and high adsorption capacity of bovine serum albumin. The selective and competitive recognition experiments indicated that the Fe3O4@void@PILMIP nanospheres could selectively recognize bovine serum albumin compared with other proteins (bovine hemoglobin, ovalbumin and lysozyme).