Selective adsorption of Crystal Violet via hydrogen bonded water bridges by InVO4

•InVO4 is highly selective for adsorption of crystal violet (CV) from the water with a large adsorption capacity (134.25 mg/g), more than 10∼13 times higher than the adsorption capacity to the rhodamine B (13.2 mg/g) and methylene blue (10.6 mg/g).•The in-situ infrared spectroscopy and 2D isotopic tracer studies confirmed the formation of hydrogen bonded water bridges that hold CV to InVO4 surface via (CV-N···HO-H···O-VO3-In).•The optimal facets of InVO4 for the CV adsorption are (200) lattice planes, when the (200) facets were maximized by tuning the InVO4 preparation conditions, the adsorption is maximized.