To capture elemental mercury from flue gas, a series of novel Cu-Mn spinel-type sorbents were synthesized using the proposed low-temperature sol-gel auto-combustion synthesis method. CuMn2O4 sorbent exhibited excellent mercury removal performance in a wide temperature window of 50-350 degrees C, which is closely related to the mobile-electron environment caused by the Jahn-Teller distortion. The adsorbed mercury species exist in the forms of Cu-Hg amalgam and HgO on the sorbent surface. The chemisorption mechanism is responsible for Hg-0 adsorption on CuMn2O4 surface. Mercury removal by CuMn2O4 sorbent is controlled by mass transfer process when the superficial velocity of flue gas is less than 16.9 cm/s. The surface reaction kinetics dominates mercury removal process when the superficial velocity is larger than 16.9 cm/s. The results of repeated adsorption-regeneration experiments indicate that CuMn2O4 sorbent exhibits excellent regenerability and recyclability for mercury removal from flue gas. During the regeneration process, the gas-phase O-2 in air can decompose over sorbent surface to regenerate the consumed chemisorbed oxygen and replenish the oxygen vacancy. Mercury desorption from spent sorbents is a first-order desorption reaction process. The pre-exponential factor and activation energy for Hg-0 desorption from used sorbent surface are 1.06x10(4) s(-1) and 61.43 kJ/mol, respectively.