Hydrogels based on cellulose-graft-poly (acrylic acid) copolymers (C-g-AA) were synthesized by graft copolymerization in a phosphoric acid solvent. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra confirmed the structure of the C-g-AA. The adsorption behaviors of the hydrogels for Cu(II) and Ni(II) were investigated. The results showed that their adsorption capacity increased as the initial concentrations of metal ions and the pH value of the solution increased. Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models were employed to analyze the data from batch adsorption experiments. The results indicated that there were very good correlation coefficients for their linearized equations. The maximum adsorption amounts of the hydrogels for the metal ions, based on the Langmuir model, were 182 and 200 mg/g for Cu(II) and Ni(II), respectively. When the initial concentration of metal ions was 1000 mg/g the actual adsorption amounts of the hydrogels for Cu(II) and Ni(II) were 181 and 183 mg/g, respectively.