A serial of cross-linked sodium acrylate and acrylamide copolymer /graphene oxide (P(AANa-co-AM)/GO) hydrogels with different mass ratios of acrylic acid (AA) to acrylamide (AM) and different contents of N,N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) were prepared via dispersive polymerization.The prepared hydrogels were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TGA, SEM, and BET in detail. The removal efficiency of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ on the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel have been improved significantly due to the addition of 1.0wt% of GO. The P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel with AA/AM=1 and 0.8 wt% of MBA has the highest removal efficiency for Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ and a suitable swelling ratio, which was selected as the adsorbent for systematic adsorption of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ from aqueous solutions.The adsorption capacity and removal efficiency of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ on the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel were dependent on pH, initial heavy metal ion concentration and adsorbent dosage. The presence of 0.01~0.05 M Mg 2+ or Ca 2+ has obvious effect on the adsorption of Cd 2+ . The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ on the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel followed pseudo-first order model and the Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ on the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel were calculated to be 452.3 and 196.4 mg/g at 298 K, respectively. The XPS analysis revealed that the adsorption mechanism of Pb 2+ and Cd 2+ on the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel was ascribed to the chelation of -COOwith Pb 2+ and the ion-exchange of -COO -Na + with Cd 2+ , respectively. The P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel possesses good reusability and excellent fixed-bed column operation performance, which suggests that the P(AANa-co-AM)/GO hydrogel can be considered as a promising adsorbent for removing heavy metal ions from practical wastewater.wastewater. Exposure to Pb 2+ or Cd 2+ can lead to health hazards such as central nervous system damage, kidney and lung damage, anemia, bone lesions and infertility problems, and even cause cancer. 1-3 Removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater has been a hot issue. Various treatment technologies have been applied for removing heavy metal ions such as chemical precipitation, 3 ion-exchange, 4 adsorption, 5,6 flocculation, 7 electrolysis, 8 electrocoagulation 9 and membrane separation, 10-12 etc.Among them, adsorption is considered as a facile and effective technique, 13,14 some adsorbents such as biosorbents, 1 active carbon, 15 inorganic minerals, 16,17 and magnetic composites 5-6,18 have been investigated for removing heavy metal ions from aqueous solution. Generally, the adsorption efficiency depends mainly on the type of adsorbents. Recently, various studies have found that hydrogel adsorbents exhibited super adsorption capacity, wide pH independence, easy regeneration and good reusability for removal of toxic metal ions and dyes from wastewater. [13][14][19][20][21][22] As a novel adsorbent, hydrogels are polymers with three dimensional (3-D) networks which can be formed via physical or chemical...