An insight into mimic of photo-Fenton degradation of ciprofloxacin and tetracycline

•The photocatalytic performance of the GO@ZnMOF composite was tested by degrading the antibiotics ciprofloxacin (CIP) and tetracycline (TC).•The degradation efficiency for CIP and TC is more with CaO2 compared to H2O2 by virtue of CaO2 continuously producing H2O2.•Introducing H2O2 or CaO2 encourages the formation of more active reactive oxygen species (ROS).•Radical scavenging experiments confirmed that the degradation reaction mimics the photo-Fenton reaction.•The photodegradation with CaO2 is more significant (99%) than H2O2 (87%) because CaO2 provides H2O2 for a longer time.