Argon oxygen decarburisation (AOD) slag may be used for phosphorus (P) removal, as its high pH and weatherable calcium (Ca) minerals provide sufficient Ca 2+ and OH -for calcium phosphate (Ca-PO 4 ) precipitation.This study examined the P removal performance of AOD slag for use as wastewater treatment material. Batch experiments were carried out using both synthetic P solution and real wastewater, followed by chemical modelling and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. The influences of initial P concentration, slag dose and modification by polyethylene glycol (PEG), an effective agent for generation of 2 porous materials, were investigated to determine the optimal conditions for P removal by AOD slag. It was found that virgin AOD slag removed 94.8% of P from a synthetic P solution in 4 hours and 97.8% in 10 hours.This high P removal was accompanied by a rapid increase in pH from 7.0 to 10.74. The maximum P removal capacity (PRC) from synthetic P solution ranged from 1.3 to 27.5 mg P g -1 . The optimal AOD dose for P removal from wastewater, determined in 8-hour batch experiments, was 25 g L -1. PEG modification increased the reaction rate and resulted in higher final pH, increasing PRC by 47.9%. Combined Visual MINTEQ and XANES analysis for detailed examination of P removal mechanisms revealed that the main P removal mechanism was precipitation of calcium phosphate. According to the XANES analysis, the main Ca-PO 4 precipitate formed on virgin AOD slag under low initial P concentration and high pH was apatite, while brushite was the dominant product at high initial P concentration and low pH.