The grafting of thiourea on chitosan backbone allows synthesizing a thiocarbamoyl derivative that was very efficient for mercury sorption in acidic solutions. Though the sorption capacity is not increased compared to raw chitosan in near neutral solutions, this modification allowed maintaining high sorption capacity (close to 2.3 mmol Hgg(-1)) at pH 2. Mercury sorption in acidic solutions is not affected by the presence of competitor metals (such as Zn(II), Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Ni(II)) or the presence of nitrate anions (even at concentration as high as 0.8 M)). The presence of chloride or sulfate anions (0.8 M) decreased Hg(II) sorption capacity to 1 mmol Hg g(-1). Kinetics are controlled by a combination of pseudo second-order reaction rate and resistance to intraparticle diffusion. Mercury desorption reached about 75% using thiourea (in HCl solution). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.