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It is stubborn to remove the lowly concentrated phthalic acid esters (PAEs) that usually coexist with other highly concentrated but low-toxic pollutants in municipal sewage. Herein, we report a novel strategy for completely removing the PAEs over a bi-functional {001}TiO 2 surface (with highly exposed {001} facet), which not only serve as functional sites to specifically adsorb the target PAEs pollutants, but also contribute to an enhanced oxidation ability. The adsorption behavior of PAEs on {001}TiO 2 is analyzed deeply through kinetic experiments combining with in situ ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. The results reveal that the adsorption capacities of PAEs on {001}TiO 2 are about 4-5 times higher than that on TiO 2 , both of which follow the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir model. This is mainly attributed to the interfacial Lewis Acid-Base Pair between {001} facet Ti 5c sites and CO of PAEs. Benefitting from the specific adsorption capability toward target pollutant and enhanced oxidation ability of {001} facets, nearly 100% of DMP or DEP in simulated wastewater can be eliminated by {001}TiO 2 within 2 h illumination, and the relevant degradation rate constants (k) (3.67 h -1 for DMP and 2.19 h -1 for DEP) are 5.73 and 3.08 folds higher than that of pure TiO 2 , respectively. In the application of municipal wastewater, nearly 76% of DMP and 85% DEP can be eliminated by {001}TiO 2 within 2 h illumination, which are nearly 3-6 fold higher than that of pure TiO 2 ., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)