Arsenic is a highly toxic element and its contamination in water bodies is a worldwide problem.Arsenic adsorption with metal oxides/hydroxides-based adsorbents is an effective approach to remove arsenic species from water for the health of both human beings and the environment.However,no material criterion had been proposed for the selection of potential candidates.Equally puzzling is the fact that no clear explanation was available on the poor arsenic adsorption performance of some commonly used adsorbents,such as active carbon or silica.Furthermore,in-depth examination was also not available for the dramatically different competing adsorption effects of various anions on the arsenic adsorption.Through the arsenic adsorption mechanism study on these highly efficient arsenic adsorbents,we found that ionic potential could be used as a general material criterion for the selection of highly efficient arsenic adsorbents and such a criterion could help us to understand the above questions on arsenic adsorbents.This material criterion could be further applied to the selection of highly efficient adsorbents based on ligand exchange between their surface hydroxyl groups and adsorbates in general,which may be used for the prediction of novel adsorbents for the removal of various contaminations in water. Arsenic is a highly toxic element and its contamination in water bodies is a worldwide problem. Arsenic adsorption with metal oxides / hydroxides-based adsorbents is an effective approach to remove arsenic species from water for the health of both human beings and the environment. However, no material criterion had been proposed for the selection of potential candidates. Eccletic puzzling is the fact that no clear explanation was available on the poor arsenic adsorption performance of some commonly used adsorbents, such as as active carbon or silica. Furthermore, in-depth examination was also not available for the dramatically different competing adsorption effects of various anions on the arsenic adsorbent.Through the arsenic adsorption mechanism study on these highly efficient arsenic adsorbents, we found that ionic potential could be used as a general material criterion for the selection of highly efficient arsenic adsorbents and such a law could help us to understand the above questions o n arsenic adsorbents. This material criterion could be further applied to the selection of highly efficient adsorbents based on ligand exchange between their surface hydroxyl groups and adsorbates in general, which may be used for the prediction of novel adsorbents for the removal of various contaminations in water .