Water pollution is a complex problem as the removal of various pollutants along with microbes need multifunctional materials to make the polluted water potable. Selective removal of highly toxic pollutant such as He ions from wastewaters is an area of critical significance. In this study we report a bi-functional material derived from N-vinylformamide (NVF) that is highly selective and has high adsorption capacity for He ions with qm of 248.76 mg g(-1) and it also acts as an biocidal agent against the representative microorganisms Gram (+), S. epidermidis, Gram (-) S. typhi, bacteria and a fungus C albicans. The effect of different parameters as well as that of the competing ions on He ions adsorption capacity was studied. The material reported in this article represents an important advance over the earlier reported materials. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.