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/L amoxicillin, 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. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.