Scandium (Sc) is the most valuable rare earth element.However, it remains challenging to achieve effective separation and purification due to its low concentration as a byproduct and the similarity of the coexisting metal elements.Herein, a kind of aluminum phosphate containing CO2-3 is facilely synthesized which possesses high selectivity of Sc(III) against the competing metal ions (Ca(II), Mg(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Na(I), Zn(II), Cd(II)) and the other rare-earth ions.Notably, Aluminum phosphate can selectively capture Sc(III) over Fe(III) with a selectivity coefficient of 1.59.It also can be used to sep. and purify Sc(III) from the real wastewater to obtain the purity of 99.0 % Sc(III) with the low cost.The results show that the adsorption process for Sc(III) was the single layer chem. adsorption with a maximum adsorption capacity of 273.9 mg/g.In addition, d. functional theory calculations reveal that O atoms played the key role in the adsorption of Sc(III) and the addition of C atoms enhanced the adsorption between O atoms and Sc(III).This work offers a novel aluminum phosphate for the low-cost way for separation and purification of Sc(III) from wastewater.