Display omitted •The adsorptive removal of both organic and inorganic contaminants using ZIF-67 based composites has been reviewed.•Synthesis, modification, and functionalization of ZIF-67 have been summarized.•Possible mechanisms and parameters affecting the performances of adsorbents are explained.•The limitations and challenges that still arise during the synthesis are discussed.•Some key ideas for future research have also been proposed to expand the of ZIF-67-based composites. Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) based composites are developed and utilized widely on account of their enormous surface area, uniform pore size, pore tunability, and rich topological diversity for the removal of several industrial wastes like dyes, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural wastes from wastewater via adsorption. ZIF-67, a subclass of ZIFs, and its derivatives have been developed over the past years by researchers for utilization in adsorption technology. ZIF-67 is fundamentally composed of tetrahedrally coordinated Co2+ with 2-methylimidazole, which demonstrates electrostatic attraction, π-π interaction, and a complex formation mechanism based on pollutants nature. In most of the cases, from the adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies, ZIF-67-based adsorbents exhibit pseudo-second order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model, respectively, where an endothermic process is revealed in most of the thermodynamic studies. In this review, the synthesis procedure of ZIF-67-based adsorbents with experimental findings, adsorption mechanism, factors affecting the adsorption process, analysis of efficiency of adsorbents along with their reusability, and finally, the challenges and future outlooks of ZIF-67-based adsorbents for liquid-phase adsorption has been presented.