A novel Hg(II) ion imprinted polymer (IIP) was synthesized by bulk polymerization using the Hg(II) ion as a template, 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP) as a monomer, 8-hydroxyquinoline as a specific ligand for Hg(II), and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a crosslinker. The Hg(II) IIP was systematically characterized by adsorption tests, FTIR spectroscopy, pore size analysis and SEM studies. Under the optimized condition, the maximum adsorption of Hg(II) IIP was 143.8 mg g⁻¹, nearly three times higher than that of the non ion-imprinted polymer (NIP) (52.6 mg g⁻¹). The synthesized Hg(II) IIP had a good selectivity for the Hg(II) ion compared with other ions. The trace amounts of Hg(II) in tap water and river water samples were measured by the sequential injection-vapor generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (SI-VG-AFS) in a linear range of 0.01–1 μg L⁻¹, with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.005 μg L⁻¹.