A new principle of design of enzyme-like complexing polymer sorbents and metal polymer complex catalysts has been developed. The principle is based on the use of memory of polymer composition and consists in conformational prearrangement of macromolecules of noncrosslinked complexing polymer favorable for sorbing metal ions and/or catalyzing substrate position followed by intermolecular crosslinking. it has been shown that prearranged polymer sorbents and catalysts demonstrate significantly improved sorption and catalytic properties.