Ionic liquids are considered to be a class of environmentally friendly compounds as combination of them with bioresource polymeric substances such as; cellulose, constitute emerging coating materials. Biosorption by polymeric ionic liquids exhibits an attractive green way that involves low cost and irrespective of toxicity. As a result, a novel polymeric ionic liquid has been developed by the reaction of one step synthesized Fe3O4-cellulose nanohybrid, epichlorohydrin and 1-methylimidazole and employed as a green sorbent for efficient biosorption of Congo red dye. Effective parameters on dye removing as well as their interactions were determined with response surface methodology (RSM). Congo red adsorption showed fast equilibrium time (11 min) with maximum uptake of 131 mg g(-1). Isotherm study revealed that Langmuir adsorption model can better describe dye adsorption behavior. Regeneration of the sorbent was performed with a mixture of methanol-acetone-NaOH (3.0 mol L-1) solution. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.