The study examined the effect of operating conditions (zinc oxide concentration, pH and irradiation time) of the UV/ZnO photocatalytic process on degradation of amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin in aqueous solution. pH has a great effect on amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin degradation. The optimum operating conditions for complete degradation of antibiotics in an aqueous solution containing 104, 105 and 103 mg/Lamoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin, respectively were: zinc oxide 0.5 g/L, irradiation time 180 min and pH 11. Under optimum operating conditions, complete degradation of amoxicillin,ampicillin and cloxacillin occurred and COD and DOC removal were 23.9 and 9.7%, respectively. The photocatalytic reactions under optimum conditions approximately followed a pseudo-first order kinetics with rate constant (k) 0.018, 0.015 and 0.029 min(-1) for amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin, respectively. UV/ZnO photocatalysis can be used for amoxicillin, ampicillin and cloxacillin degradation in aqueous solution. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.