Chinese loess has proven to be effective in removing Zn(II) from aqueous solutions, but the resultant adsorbent-water slurry is difficult to separate. In this paper, the crude loess was calcinated to improve the separation efficiency of slurries in terms of sedimentary rate by increasing the particle sizes of the adsorbent. The sorption capacities of different sorbents, including crude loess, calcinated loess, de-organic crude loess and acid-treated calcinated loess, were obtained and sequenced. The adsorption capacity of the calcinated loess towards Zn(II) was found to be as high as 113.6 mg g(-1). The adsorption isotherms and kinetics of calcinated loess were best-fit with the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second order kinetics, respectively. The thermodynamic analysis revealed that the adsorption was exothermic and spontaneous with a high preference for Zn(II) removal. The adsorption of Zn(II) on calcinated loess implies an ion exchange of the solute with calcite and goethite due to the observed FT-IR and XRD patterns as well as the predicted mean free energies (-11.58 to -9.28 kJ mol(-1) by D-R model). The byproduct of adsorption can be purified and refreshed by using a 0.01 M HCl solution. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.