The present study describes the effective performance of MnCo 2 O 4 /NaY zeolite (MnCo 2 O 4 : 18.7 wt%) as a novel nanocomposite adsorbent for the removal of Sr 2+ ions from drinking water of Tehran city. The reactions were all carried out under pre-organized optimized conditions and the subsequent monitoring was accomplished via the ultra-low level liquid scintillation counting (LSC) analysis. The characterization study of samples was carried out using scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray, atomic force microscope, powder X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Multiple experimental conditions including adsorbent dose, pH, adsorbent type and contact time were applied for the adsorption-removal process of Sr 2+ ions by the MnCo 2 O 4 /NaY nanocomposite adsorbent. The results from LSC concluded that Sr 2+ was operatively adsorbed on the nanocomposite surface active sites after 180 min at room temperature with a yield more than 95%. The reaction kinetic data was precisely studied by employing pseudo-first and second-orders, intra particle diffusion and Elovich models. The adsorption kinetics was found to fit the pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, the investigation of the thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG , ΔH and ΔS , specified that adsorption procedure of Sr 2+ was spontaneous and expresses a physic-chemical adsorption characteristics and exothermic feature of the adsorption reaction. The sequential experiments of reproducibility for the synthesized nanocomposite against Sr 2+ ions showed removal efficiency of more than 91% for all those cycles. © 2018, Springer Nature B.V.