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[Display omitted] • Activated carbon modified TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 adsorbent was prepared by a one-pot hydrothermal method. • Low temperature calcination (280 °C) led to high surface area (188.49 m2/g) of TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 /AC. • The integrated adsorbent/photocatalyst system promoted high removal efficiency of organic pollutants. • The efficient adsorption and photo-regeneration mechanism of tetracyclines were detailed. Considerable endeavors have focused on tightly combining adsorption with photocatalysis in designing composite materials for environmental pollution treatment. Recent advances in coupling titanium dioxide/bismuth trioxide (TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3) with activated carbon (AC) show significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance but face critical limitations including low adsorption capacity and multi-step synthesis. In this work, we introduce a one-pot synthesis of activated carbon modified TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 composite materials (TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 /AC). Thanks to the integrated adsorbent/photocatalyst system, TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 /AC shows a drastically enhanced removal efficiency for sulfamethazine (>81%), far beyond the corresponding value of the reported AC/TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 adsorbent (<40%). Notably, the removal rates of other typical pollutants including tetracyclines, methyl orange, and rhodamine B are as high as >98%. Furthermore, TiO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 /AC obtains >80% of its adsorption rate for the fifth cycle after simple photo-regeneration without any other post-treatments. Kinetic analysis and photoelectric characterization are carried out to provide insight into adsorption mechanism. Therefore, this work demonstrates a considerable potential to design and construct other multifunctional adsorbents with advanced performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]