Recebido em 7/3/07; aceito em 27/7/07; publicado na web em 26/2/08Being mercury one of the most toxic heavy metals present in the environment, it is of major concern to develop cleanup technologies to remove it from wastewater and recover mercury polluted ecosystems. In this context, we study the potential of some microporous titanosilicates and zirconosilicates for taking up Hg 2+ from aqueous solutions. These materials have unique chemical and physical properties, and here we are able to confirm that they readily remove Hg 2+ from aqueous solutions. Moreover, the presence of the competitive Mg 2+ and Na + , which are some of the dominant cations in natural waters, does not reduce the uptake capacity of some of these materials. Thus, several inorganic materials reported here may have important environmental applications, efficiently removing Hg 2+ from aqueous solutions.