The effect of polyurethane (PU) foam on the morphological and transport properties of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) with 9% vinyl acetate and the potential application of 3%bentonite/28.5% PU/68.5% EVA composites fabricated via the melt-blending method in heavy-metal extraction from water systems were investigated. EVA did not swell in water, whereas the PU/EVA blend attained a maximum percentage of deionized water uptake of 2.158 mol %. A 3% bentonite/28.5% PU/68.5% EVA composite blend successfully removed 90% of Pb2+ from an aqueous solution with an initial concentration of 30 mg/L, whereas 3% bentonite/97% EVA could only extract 7.323% of Pb2+ ions. Pb2+ adsorption was found to obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies demonstrated that the adsorption was favorable at room temperature and the uptake of Pb2+ was mostly by physical adsorption, as also indicated by the value n = 2.449 (where n is an empirical parameter indicating transport mode) from the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011