Triphosphate (TPP) is an important form of phosphate pollutants while its removal investigation has been just started now. This research examined the removal of triphosphate using Mg(2-x)Ca(x)FeCl-LDH (x = 0-2) as absorbents. We found that the removal of triphosphate over Mg(2)FeCl-LDH mainly underwent the surface adsorption and the near-edge intercalation, with the practical removal amount (9-11 mg(P)/g) corresponding to 10-15% of the theoretical one. In contrast, Ca(2)FeCl-LDH removed a higher amount of triphosphate (56.4 mg(P)/g). The comprehensive analysis of the triphosphate-uptake products with XRD/XPS/FTIR reveals that Ca(2)FeCl-LDH dissolves first and then released Ca(2+) ions react with triphosphate (TPP) to form insoluble Ca-TPP precipitate. Combination of these two different removal mechanisms enables Mg(0.5)Ca(1.5)FeCl-LDH to take up 84.2 mg(P)/g from aqueous solution under similar conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.