Abstract.One kind of potentially biodegradable cationic sorbent, which bears hydroxyl groups of phosphoric acid as its functional groups, with high sorption capacity of copper was prepared by thermochemically esterifying phosphoric acid (PA) onto soybean hull. Sorption of Cu(II) from aqueous solution onto modified soybean hull (MSH) was investigated in a batch system. The sorption experiments were performed under various conditions such as different initial pH, copper concentration, MSH dosage, and contact time. The maximum copper sorption was obtained when initial solution pH≥3.5. The isothermal data of copper sorption fitted the Langmuir model and the sorption process could be described by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The maximum sorption capacity (Qm) of MSH for Cu(II) was 31.55 mg/g. For 100 mg/l of Cu(II) solution, a sorption ratio above 91% could be achieved by 5.0 g/l of MSH. The equilibrium of Cu(II) sorption was reached within 50 min. The foreign cation and chelator in Cu(II) solution caused decline of Cu(II) sorption.