La-EDTA-Fe3O4 was prepared by a chemical co-precipitation method. The magnetic composite was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Furthermore, the adsorption properties of La-EDTA-Fe3O4 toward phosphate in water were investigated. The uptake rate of phosphate in water by La-EDTA-Fe3O4 was 3-1000 times than that of EDTA-Fe3O4, and reached 97.8% at 7 hr. The adsorption process agreed well with the Freundlich model and kinetics studies showed that the adsorption of phosphate proceeds according to pseu...