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CuO/Fe 3 O 4 /GO, as a Z-scheme heterojunction catalyst, was successfully synthesized and used as a photocatalyst for removing tetracycline from aqueous solution. The CuO/Fe 3 O 4 /GO heterogeneous catalyst combines the narrow bandgap semiconductor CuO, oxygen vacancies of Fe 3 O 4 , and oxygen-containing reaction sites of GO. Without the addition of activators (persulfate or H 2 O 2 ), the photocatalytic performance on decomposing tetracycline is very excellent. Compared with GO, Fe 3 O 4 , and CuO, CuO/Fe 3 O 4 /GO exhibits superior photocatalytic performance. Under visible light radiation, CuO/Fe 3 O 4 /GO generates h + and ⋅O 2 - , which are the mainly responsible active groups for TC degradation. The effects of various pH, catalysts, and reuse on the degradation performance are evaluated, and the optimal conditions for CuO/Fe 3 O 4 /GO removal of tetracycline are obtained at pH 7, catalyst dosage 20 mg⋅L -1 , TC at a concentration of 30 mg/L, nearly 97.3% of tetracycline is decomposed. This study has great potential in the treatment of wastewater containing various antibiotics., 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 © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)