In this work, iron-manganese binary oxides (FMO) modified with different proportions of glucose addition (FMOCx) by co-precipitation method showed good activity in activating hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for tetracycline degradation. The structure and surface characterizations of the FMO and FMOCx were measured by XRD, FTIR, TEM, BET and XPS. With increased glucose addition, FMOCx has more surface functional groups such as -OH and -COOH, particle size decreases, surface area gradually increases, and the ratio of high valence iron and manganese also increases. In addition, the glucose might be oxidized by KMnO4 to form amorphous carbon on the catalyst surface. Glucose modified iron-manganese binary oxides FMOC3 (with 0.003 mol glucose added) showed the highest efficiency removal capability for tetracycline up to 85%, which attribute to it has a larger surface area, more surface functional groups and higher surface active Mn(IV) site content. The results also demonstrated that FMOC3 could efficiently activate hydrogen peroxide. This study proves that glucose modified iron-manganese binary oxides (FMOCx) can offered a possibility of degradation of refractory organic pollutants as an environmentally friendly catalyst in the absence of H2O2 or not. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.