In this work, the composite of strontium phosphate and barium phosphate (called SBP) nanorods have been synthesized, characterized and studied for removal of methyl blue (MB). The effects of pH, temperature, contact time, initial dye concentration on removal of MB were studied in detail. Results suggest that pH and temperature were not critical limiting factors for the removal of MB. Reaching equilibrium was very rapid (within 10 min) and the high adsorption capacity of MB by SBP nanorods was 1691.8 mg/g at initial dye concentration of 2000 mg/L. The adsorption process obeyed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and Langmuir isotherm model. Importantly, the mechanism contributed to the MB removal was proposed to be the ionic interaction and hydrogen bonds for low dye concentration, chemical precipitation for high dye concentration. It is predicted that the SBP nanorods being an effective adsorbent for elimination of MB from colored aqueous solutions. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.