Zinc aluminum layered double hydroxides (LDH) with Zn/Al molar ratios of 2 and 3 were synthesized by general (Zn2G-Al, Zn3G-Al) and modified (Zn2M-Al, Zn3M-Al) urea hydrolysis methods. The effects of time, pH, selectivity and initial phosphorous concentration were investigated on phosphate uptake by synthesized LDH in a simulated soil solution. Moreover, phosphate desorption from studied LDH was evaluated. Based on the results, nitrate containing Zn-Al LDH were synthesized by both methods. However, the presence of carbonate ion in the interlayer space of Zn3G-Al was recorded. The kinetics experiments indicated that the pseudo-second order model well described phosphate uptake on all LDH. The lowest uptake (1.09 mmol g−1) was observed for Zn3G-Al likely due to Zn/Al molar ratio, the presence of carbonate in the interlayer space and incomplete phosphate intercalation mechanism. Phosphate adsorption isotherms of LDH were in agreement with Freundlich model. Although phosphate uptake decreased in the presence of other anions, the highest selectivity especially in the pure nitrate containing LDH were measured for phosphate anion. Phosphate uptake declined with increasing the pH from 6 to 8. The amounts of phosphate desorption from prepared LDH were between 23.2 and 36.3% suggesting that synthesized LDH may have potential to be used as a slow release phosphate fertilizer in soils.

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