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.