Novel Cu (II) magnetic ion imprinted materials prepared by surface imprinted technique combined with a sol-gel process

► Cu (II)-MIIP was synthesized by surface imprinting technique combined with a sol-gel process. ► The resulting Cu (II)-MIIP exhibited high adsorption and fast adsorption rate. ► Cu (II)-MIIP showed high selectivity coefficients for Cu (II) relative Zn (II) and Ni (II). ► The developed Cu (II)-MIIP may be applied to recover and utilize precious heavy metal from industrial wastewater.