In the present study, the competitive adsorption characteristics of binary and ternary heavy metal ions Hg2+. Pb2+ and Co2+ on polyacrylamide/attapulgite (PAM/ATP) were investigated in batch systems. PAM/ATP was prepared by the solution polymerization of acrylamide (AM) onto gamma-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (KH-570) modified attapulgite (ATP) and characterized by the technique of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Equilibrium and kinetic adsorption data showed that PAM/ATP displays a high selectivity towards one metal in a two-component or a three-component system with an affinity order of Hg2+ > Pb2+ > Co2+. The equilibrium behaviors of heavy metal species with stronger affinity toward PAM/ATP can be described by the Langmuir equation while the adsorption kinetics of the metals can be well fitted to a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Desorption was performed using hot acetic acid, and the regenerated adsorbents could be reused with little loss of adsorption capacity. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.