A flat sheet sorbent with poly(hydroxamic acid) groups anchored on the microporous structure ofpoly(propylene) membrane was developed and applied for the preconcentration and determinationof heavy elements from natural waters. The designing of the sorbent involved UV-irradiation inducedgraft polymerization of acrylamide using N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA) as the crosslinker on thepoly(propylene) base followed by chemical modification of the grafted membrane to generate crosslinkedpoly(hydroxamic acid) (PHA) groups in its pores. The synthesized PHA-membrane was found to precon-centrate U, V, Cu, Cr, Fe and Pb quantitatively (95%) from aqueous samples over a wide pH range of 4–9.The sorbed trace elements were quantified by direct analysis of the membrane using Energy DispersiveX-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF). To test the applicability of the developed sorbent to real samples, interfer-ence effect of common matrix elements like Na, K, Ca and Mg on the uptake of the analytes at sub  μg mL−1level was studied. The PHA sorbent was found to be immune to interferences from Na, K and Mg up to1000  μg mL⁻¹and Ca up to 100  μg mL⁻¹ for an analyte concentration of 1 μg mL⁻¹. The method detectionlimit for EDXRF measurement was 6–30 ng using a 2 cm × 2 cm sorbent.