The sorption of mercury ions from aqueous solutions on styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer beads (St-DVB) has been investigated for the decontamination of mercury from aqueous media. Various physico-chemical parameters, such as selection of appropriate electrolyte, contact time, amount of adsorbent, concentration of adsorbate, effect of diverse ions and temperature were optimized to simulate the best conditions which can be used to decontaminate mercury from aqueous media using St-DVB beads as an adsorbent. The radiotracer technique was used to determine the distribution of mercury. The highest adsorption was observed at 0.001 mol L