Highly ordered hierarchical calcium carbonate is an important phase and has technological interest in the development of functional materials. The work describes hierarchical CaCO3-maltose meso/macroporous hybrid materials were synthesized using a simple gas-diffusion method. The uniform hexagonal-shaped CaCO3-maltose hybrid materials are formed by the hierarchical assembly of nanoparticles. The pore structure analysis indicates that the sample possesses the macroporous structure of mesoporous framework. The distinguishing features of the hierarchical CaCO3-maltose materials in water treatment involve not only high removal capacities, but also decontamination of trace metal ions. Langmuir model fitted the equilibrium data better than the Freundlich isotherm. The maximum removal capacity of the CaCO3-maltose hybrid materials for Pb2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Mn2+ and Ni2+ ions was 3242.48, 487.80, 628.93, 393.70, 558.66 and 769.23 mg/g, respectively. Adsorption data were modeled using the pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetics equations. The results indicate that pseudo-second-order kinetic equation and intra-particle diffusion model can better describe the adsorption kinetics. The adsorption and precipitation transformation mechanism can be considered due to hierarchical meso/macroporous structure, rich organic ligands of the CaCO3-maltose hybrid materials and the larger solubility product of CaCO3. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.