Adsorption of chloroacetanilide herbicides on homoionic montmorillonite, soil humic acid, and their mixtures was studied by coupling batch equilibration and FT-IR analysis. Adsorption isotherms of acetochlor, alachlor, metolachlor and propachlor on Ca2 + -, Mg2 + -. Al3 + -and Fe3 + -saturated clays were well described by the Freundlich equation. Regardless of the type of exchange cations, Kf decreased in the order of metolachlor ＞ acetolachlor ＞ alachlor ＞ propachlor on the same clay. FT-IR spectra showed that the carbonyl group of the herbicide molecule was involved in binding, probably via H-bond with water molecules in the clay interlayer. The type and position of substitutions around the carbonyl group may have affected the electronegativity of oxygen, thus influencing the relative adsorption of these herbicides. For the same herbicide, adsorption on clay increased in the order of Mg2+ ＜ Ca2+ ＜ Al3+ ≤ Fe3+ which coincided with the iucreasing aciditv of homoionic clays. Acidity of cations may have affected the protonation of water, and thus the strength of H-bond between the clay water and herbicide. Complexation of clay and humic acid resulted in less adsorption than that expected from independent adsorption by the individual constituents. The effect varied with herbicides, but the greatest decrease in adsorption occurred at a 60:40 clay-to-humic acid ratio for all the herbicides. Causes for the decreased adsorption need to be characterized to better understand adsorption mechanisms and predict adsorption from soil compositions.