Competitive adsorption characteristics of fluoride and phosphate on calcined Mg–Al–CO3 layered double hydroxides

► The influences of pH, contact time and order of addition of the anions were obtained. ► The kinetic data were found to fit very well the pseudo second-order kinetic model. ► Data of equilibrium experiments were fitted well to Langmuir isotherm. ► The competitive monolayer adsorption capacities obviously decreased. ► ATR-FTIR proofs of competitive adsorption were obtained. With synthetic wastewater, competitive adsorption characteristics of fluoride and phosphate on calcined Mg–Al–CO3 layered double hydroxides (CLDH) were investigated. A series of batch experiments were performed to study the influence of various experimental parameters, such as pH, contact time, and order of addition of the anions on the competitive adsorption of fluoride and phosphate on CLDH. It was found that the optimal pH is around 6 and it took 24h to attain equilibrium when fluoride and phosphate were simultaneous added. The order of addition of anions influenced the adsorption of fluoride and phosphate on CLDH. The kinetic data were analyzed using the pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order models and they were found to fit very well the pseudo second-order kinetic model. Data of equilibrium experiments were fitted well to Langmuir isotherm and the competitive monolayer adsorption capacities of fluoride and phosphate were found to be obviously lower than those of single anion at 25°C. The results of X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analyses, and ATR-FTIR demonstrate that the adsorption mechanism involves the rehydration of mixed metal oxides and concomitant intercalation of fluoride and phosphate ions into the interlayer to reconstruct the initial LDHs structure.