Inorganic-organic hybrid ZnO-polyimide core-shell photocatalysts were facilely fabricated through a one-step calcination process. The resultant hybrids showed remarkablly enhanced photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) decolorization under visible light irradiation. The decolorization rate of the optimum ZnO-polyimide photocatalyst (similar to 31 wt% of ZnO) is 1.2 times of the pristine polyimide under the same experimental conditions. The photocatalytic mechanism reveals that the direct oxidation by photogenerated holes is the main reaction pathway for MB degradation. The enhanced photoactivity for MB decolorization over ZnO-polyimide hybrids is attributed to the effective interfacial charge transfer between ZnO and polyimide, thereby, suppresses the recombination of the photoexcited electron-hole pairs and improves the photocatalytic efficiency. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.