Novel materials with either polyampholyte or polyelectrolyte character and coordination properties were obtained by reaction of methacrylic acid (MAA), imidazole (IM) or 2-methylimidazole (2MI) and ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) in the presence of benzoyl peroxide. This new synthetic strategy gave rise to non-soluble, compact plastics that can be milled into non-porous particles. The polymers were studied by solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, FT IR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental values of the isoelectric point (pI) were 6.04 ± 0.02 for poly(EGDE-MAA-IM) and 6.4 ± 0.2 for poly(EGDE-MAA-2MI). The water content was low due to the high cross-linking degree. These materials behaved as ionic exchangers. Copper (Cu2+) was chosen as a model, the equilibrium binding was analyzed, and the coordination properties were studied by FTIR and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDS). The maximum binding capacity for copper ion was 67 mg g-1 for poly(EGDE-MAA-IM), 57 mg g-1 for poly(EGDE-MAA-2MI) and 0.9 mg g-1 for poly(EGDE-MAA). © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.