A modified chitosan transparent thin membrane (MCTTM) was prepared and used as the adsorbent to investigate the adsorption kinetics due to excellent capacity of removing copper ions in water solution. The structure and morphology of MCTTM were characterized by SEM analysis and FTIR analysis. External mass transfer, intra particle diffusion, and pseudo-first and pseudo-second order models were used to describe the adsorption process. The results obtained from the study illustrated that the adsorption process could be described by the pseudo-second order model, which indicated adsorption process was a chemical adsorption behavior of chelation ion exchange proved by the FTIR and adsorption free energy analysis. External mass transfer and intra particle diffusion processes were the rate-controlling steps. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.