Abstract: Aqueous two-phase system（ATPS） is a green，environmentally friendly，new separation technology and is of wide application prospect，and becomes an advanced research hotspot in recent years.It is discussed about the application research situation in extracting and separating metal ions by ATPS，which is divided into three aspects according to different extracting agents：directly extracting metal ion without any extracting agent，extracting metal ion complex by forming anion complex（chelate） between metal cation and inorganic anion extracting agent and metal cation and organic reagent extracting agent. The development tendency of extracting and separating metal ions by ATPS is predicted from four aspects：the first is to establish mechanism model of metal ions partition by ATPS；the second is to recover and recycle phase-forming substance of ATPS;the third is to achieve separation and normal temperature preparation of inorganic salts by hydration ability difference of inorganic salts or by temperature-induced phase separation of ATPS；and the fourth is to develop engineering research of extracting and separating metal ions by ATPS.

Key words: aqueous two-phase system, research progress, metal ions