UiO-66-NH₂ is an efficient material for removing pollutants from wastewater due to its high specific surface area, high porosity and water stability. However, recycling them from wastewater is difficult. In this study, the cellulose nanofibers mat deacetylated from cellulose acetate nanofibers were used to combine with UiO-66-NH₂ by the method of in-situ growth to remove the toxic dye, rose bengal. Compared to previous work, the prepared composite could not only provide ease of separation of UiO-66-NH₂ from the water after adsorption but also demonstrate better adsorption capacity (683 mg∙g^‒1 (T = 25 °C, pH = 3)) than that of the simple UiO-66-NH₂ (309.6 mg∙g^‒1 (T = 25 °C, pH = 3)). Through the analysis of adsorption kinetics and isotherms, the adsorption for rose bengal is mainly suitable for the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich model. Furthermore, the relevant research revealed that the main adsorption mechanism of the composite was electrostatic interaction, hydrogen bonding and π–π interaction. Overall, the approach depicts an efficient model for integrating metal-organic frameworks on cellulose nanofibers to improve metal-organic framework recovery performance with potentially broad applications.