CuII-imprinted microspheres with imidazole groups at the surfaces were prepared from a seed emulsion with divinylbenzene as a matrix-forming monomer and CuII as a template by radical polymerization. The seed emulsion was prepared from the polymerization of 1-vinylimidazole, styrene, and n-butyl acrylate mixture by a radical initiator. The obtained microspheres were uniform-sized spherical particles and their average diameter was 0.44 μm based on scanning electron micrography. The adsorption of the CuII ion (0.05 mM) on these microspheres was studied, and compared to non-imprinted ones. The adsorption of CuII ion increased on both microspheres with increasing pH. The template effect was observed, that is, the pH giving 50% adsorption of CuII ion on CuII-imprinted resin was lower by one unit than that on non-imprinted resin. The template effect was also observed for the ZnII ion, but not observed for the CdII ion.
