Bagasse-based ion adsorbent was prepared by chemically modifying bagasse with acrylonitrile and hydroxylamine with the aim to enhance the ability of removal heavy metal ions from wastewater. The purified modified materials were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). Batch experiments of Cu(II) ions (Cu2+) adsorption on the bagasse adsorbent were performed. Effects of the adsorbent dosage, initial pH of the solution, temperature of the Cu2+ solution, and initial Cu2+ concentration on the adsorption of Cu2+ were studied, respectively. Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to describe the adsorption isotherm of Cu2+ by bagasse adsorbent. The results indicated that Langmuir model fitted the adsorption equilibrium data better than the Freundlich isotherm model. Two kinetic models, including pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order, were also used to analyze the Cu2+ adsorption process, and the results showed that the pseudo-second-order with correlation coefficients greater than 0.999 was more suitable than pseudo-first-order. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.