Metal-organic gels (MOGs) have emerged as a class of functional materials that show great potential applications in the field of catalysis, energy storage, template synthesis, and environmental technology. The construction of functional MOGs and the control of functionality are still challenging due to complicated chemicals or routes involved in previous works. Here we report a series of tunable multifunctional MOGs by directly gelating between Fe3+ and simple chemicals, propanedioic acid (H(2)PA), succinic acid (H(2)SA), glutaric acid (H(2)GA), and fumaric acid (H(2)FA) in ethanol. The obtained MOGs exhibit self-healing property and good conductivity, and were used for high efficacy removal of arsenic (As) in water. The ease, low cost, and scalability of the assembly process combined with multifunctionality make these MOGs be potentially applied in the fields of energy storage and sewage disposal. (c) 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 3719-3727, 2018