Barium borosilicate glass was found to have high uptake capacity for many cations. To improve its selectivity, surface modification was carried out. In order to make the glass selective towards uranyl ion, organic ligands like tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) and 8-hydroxy quinoline (Oxine) were used. It was observed that the surface modification resulted in the change in uptake property of the glass. The uptake process was faster and within 5 h, 90% of the uranyl ion could be taken up from a 0.01 mM solution. With use of the modified barium borosilicate glass and EDTA as masking agent, uranyl ion could be selectively removed from mixtures of cations. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.