In this paper, beta-cyclodextrin-glycine-modified TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2/Gly/beta-CD NPs) as a nano-adsorbent were prepared and employed for the removal of some organic pollutants from aqueous solutions. Results from FT-IR, FESEM, TEM, XRD, EDX and BET surface area measurement showed that the TiO2 NPs was modified with Gly and beta eta-cyclodextrin (8 CD). The effect of environmental factors, including pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, temperature, and initial dye concentration on the adsorption ability of the TiO2/Gly/beta-CD were investigated in detail. The results of this study showed that TiO2/Gly/beta-CD has high adsorption efficiency toward organic dyes, and were comparable with other adsorbents. The adsorption capacities of MB, MO, AB113, and DR1 onto TiO2/Gly/beta-CD NPs are found to be 81.97 mg/g, 384.62 mg/g, 76.92 mg/g, and 138.89 mg/g, respectively. In addition, the adsorbent presented can be used in several adsorption-desorption cycles. The dye adsorption kinetics, thermodynamics and isotherms were also investigated. The results indicated that pseudo-second-order kinetic model with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9971, and Freundlich isotherm model with correlation coefficients greater than 0.991 well describe the adsorption of MB, MO, AB113, and DR1 on the TiO2/Gly/beta-CD NPs. Moreover, the thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process for all types of organic dyes was exothermic. Additionally, the adsorbent was successfully applied to remove industrial dyes from real textile wastewater with satisfactory results. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.