In this paper, potassium bromate/thiourea dioxide redox system was used to initiate the graft copolymerization reaction of acrylic acid onto maize starch. The so obtained polyacrylic acid/starch graft copolymer was crosslinked by further treatment with alkaline epichlorohydrin to get three dimensional hydrogel. This crosslinked hydrogel was used for the removal of the heavy element, Cd2+ from its aqueous solution by adsorption. All factors which are expected to affect the adsorption process, like adsorbent concentration, immersion time, graft yield of the adsorbent, Cd2+ concentration and adsorption temperature were extensively studied and reported in the text. The study and investigations demonstrated that the adsorption efficiency is affected by the adsorbent graft yield and the adsorption medium temperature. In addition, on fitting the data obtained from the adsorption process, it was found that the adsorption obeys both Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms but the Langmuir isotherm shows better mathematical fitting for the equilibrium data than does Freundlich model, based on the higher R-2 value for the Langmuir isotherm. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.