**3. Conclusions**

The rise in industrial, medical, technological and domestic activities has led to huge increases in the levels of heavy metals which have serious impacts on both human health and environment. Therefore, the demand for reducing the effects of potential pollutants has increased throughout the world by improving existing techniques and introducing novel adsorbent materials. The preparation of such materials which can remove toxic heavy metals from aqueous media is still a continuing objective of environmental remediation efforts, particularly where there is a need to enhance the adsorption capacity and metal ion specificity. Recently, researchers have focused on polymeric adsorbents for separation and purification purposes due to their valuable advantages such as relatively easy regeneration, perfect mechanical rigidity, vast surface area, adjustable surface chemistry, simple processing and possibility to shape them into most suitable form (e.g. sheets, beads and membranes). This chapter highlighted the practical applications of acrylic-based polymers for the removal of heavy metals ions in water. In summary, it was clearly seen that there is still a need to develop new adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals to introduce simple, rapid and quantitative methods that can be applied in environmental remediation studies.
