A comparative study was carried out for the removal of phosphorus in simulated unplanted vertical-flow constructed wetlands with different layered double hydroxide (LDHs) coated anthracite substrates. Three particle sizes of anthracites were selected and modified separately with nine kinds of LDH coating. The simulated substrates test columns loaded with the original and modified anthracites were constructed to treat the contaminated water. For the medium and large particle size modified anthracite substrates, the purification effects of total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus and phosphate were improved by various degrees, and the purification effect of the medium particle size anthracite is better than that of the large size one. The medium size anthracite modified by ZnCo-LDHs had optimal performance with average removal efficiencies of total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus and phosphate reaching 95%, 95% and 98%, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity on ZnCo-LDHs and ZnAl-LDHs modified medium sizes anthracites were 65.79 (mg/kg) and 48.78 (mg/kg), respectively. In comparison, the small size anthracite is not suitable for LDHs modification
