La3+-Al3+ loaded scoria (La-Al-Scoria) was prepared as adsorbent for the fluoride removal from groundwater. The connecting time experiment indicated that the fluoride adsorption process reached equilibrium within 5 hours. The kinetics of fluoride ion adsorption onto La-Al-Scoria was followed the pseudo-second order with correlation coefficient value (R-2) of 0.997. The isotherm data was well fitted to both of the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models, the R-2 of Freundlich and Langmuir were 0.98 and 0.97, respectively. Subsequently, the adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. SEM visual expressed that the dense canal surface structure of natural scoria appeared a large amount of rod-like composite after modification. The XRD and XPS instrumental studies revealed that the La3+ and Al3+ were loaded on the surface of modified scoria and the fluoride ion was adsorbed on the La-Al-Scoria. The large amount of La-Al-O composite oxide existed onto the surface of La-Al-Scoria was the immanent cause for the excellent adsorption capacity of fluoride ion. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.