Effluent organic matter (EfOM) is of great concern as one of main sources of organic pollutants from biologically treated wastewater, which is harmful to the quality of receiving waters. In present study, magnetic biochar composite (MBC) was successfully prepared, characterizated and applied to EfOM treatment. The interaction between EfOM and MBC was explored by a combination of excitation-emission matrix (EEM), parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), synchronous fluorescence, two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS), and molecular weight distribution. Result implied that two fluorescence components were derived from EEM-PARAFAC, and their relative fluorescence intensity scores expressed decreased trend. Moreover, fluorescence quenching of EfOM with increased MBC took place sequentially in the following order: protein-like fraction < fulvic-like and humic-like fractions. Molecular weight distribution suggested that MBC had different uptake ability to various size ranges of EfOM. The obtained results could provide a potential application of fluorescence spectroscopy for EfOM treatment assessment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.