Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is carcinogenic and highly toxic to humans, animals, and plants. The removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from contaminated aqueous solutions is urgently needed for human's sustainable development. Accordingly, in this work, a simple and effective route based on electrospinning and pyrolytic reaction is presented for the fabrication of iron oxides loaded nanofibrous membranes, which are subsequently used for the Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations revealed that FexOy nanoparticles are effectively loaded on the surface of composite nanofibrous membrane. Furthermore, the Cr(VI) removal testing results showed that the prepared FeO loaded nanofibrous membranes exhibited outstanding Cr(VI) removal performance. Moreover, the adsorption experiments also indicated that the adsorption process belonged to Freundlich adsorption model, and the kinetics of the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order model. Therefore, not only a high Cr(VI) removal efficiency nanofibrous membrane is successfully obtained, but also such technology offers a simple and efficient new method for environmental restoration field. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.