The present study has reported an optimized fabrication and application of a novel PVA/TEOS/Schiff base nanofibers membrane as a highly sensitive copper (II) ions in aqueous environment. Here in, for first time, an ultrasound-assisted synthesized symmetric Schiff base has been immobilized on a hybrid polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and TEOS using electrospinning technique for detection and filtration of copper ions. For this purpose, various working parameters were evaluated and finally the optimized nano fibers membrane was synthesized with 72 nm thickness and PVA/TEOS/Schiff base ratio of (wt%) 8:6:1. The optimized sample named PTLNFM has been employed successfully as an ultra sensitive chemosensor for Cu (II) detection in real samples. The immobilized Schiff base used as a chelating agent could detect copper (II) in the range from 9.34 × 10−8 to 1.15 × 10−5 mol L−1 with the following correlation equation: Absorbance = 0.066 [Cu2+] × 10−6 + 0.095 and R2 = 0.992 and LOD of 1.27 × 10−8 mol L−1 which was lower than most of the reported detection limits in the previous literatures. Validity of this method has been carried out by analysis of Cu2+ in real samples with satisfying recoveries of over 96.11–99.24%.The developed membrane could be offered for diverse use such as medical or industrial applications. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.