Cu2+ and Pb2+ in water is adsorbed by corncob modified with tartaric acid from aqueous solution. The result showed that the adsorption process of Cu2+ and Pb2+ can well accord with the pseudo-second-order reaction equation.The higher the temperature，the easier the adsorption of Cu2+ and Pb2+ . The low values of apparent activation energy of modified corncob adsorbing Cu2+ and Pb2+ indicated that the process has the property of physical adsorption. The adsorption law of Cu2+ and Pb2+ can be well fitted with Freundlich model,and ΔG＜0，ΔH＞0，ΔS＞0.The adsorption process is spontaneous, endothermic and entropy increase. The increase of temperature is advantageous to adsorption reaction.The corncob has good performance of regeneration. The result has certain reference value for the removal of wastewater heavy metal ions.