Abstract SDS-Goethite and goethite materials were prepared via precipitation technique in an alkaline medium at pH = 12. The structural characterization of the prepared samples established that, the use of either lower concentration (0.05 mol) of SDS and or higher one (0.15 mol) hindered the formation of goethite, and the ferrihydrite phase is the predominant one. On using 0.1 mol of SDS, the X-ray diffraction pattern reveals the formation of a well crystalline goethite material. The surface area and the pore volume decrease from 143.0 and 0.249 for goethite to 113.0 m 2 /g and 0.2010 ml/g for SDS-goethite (0.1 SDS) sample. Langmuir and Freundlich models evaluated the adsorption results. The high adsorption capacity of the prepared SDS-goethite sample towards manganese removal was attained after contact time 60 min with maximum Q m = 76.3 mg/g as compared with the goethite (19.5 mg/g). The improvement of the adsorption capacity may point to the creative surface hydroxyl groups on using the sodium dodecyl sulphate as a surfactant material.