Porous manganese (Mn)-doped copper (II) oxide (CuO) microplates were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller N 2 adsorption-desorption analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It is shown that the morphologies of samples can be transformed from hierarchical porous microspheres to microplates by doping with manganese ions. The manganese-doped copper (II) oxide (10%) has a wide pore size distribution from micropore to macropore, and its surface area is 16·82 m 2 /g, which is 2·4 times that of copper (II) oxide microspheres (6·92 m 2 /g). It shows excellent adsorption properties for potassium ethyl xanthate. The saturated adsorption capacity of porous manganese-doped copper (II) oxide (10%) microplates for potassium ethyl xanthate is 5219 mg/g, which is 6·4 times that of copper (II) oxide microspheres (813 mg/g). The excellent adsorption property is mainly attributed to the intrinsic structure and the large specific surface area. This approach is expected to be extended to the preparation of other porous materials.Langmuir constrants m mass of the sample (g) q e adsorption capacity (mg/g) V volume of solution