Both photocatalysis and Fenton-like catalysis present promising and potential technologies for water purification. However, single photocatalysis or Fenton-like catalysis cannot meet the practical demand for complicated pollutes treatment in water. Herein, we report an environmentally benign Ag3PO4/CuO catalysts that combine the two catalysis. The synthesized Ag3PO4 acts as an efficient photocatalyst, and Fenton-like CuO catalysis decomposes organic pollutes in the presence of H2O2. A series of Ag3PO4/CuO composites were obtained by regulating the molar ratio of Ag3PO4 to CuO via hydrothermal and ion exchange reactions. The optimized composite shows a significant improvement in catalytic activity over pure Ag3PO4 under visible light or CuO with H2O2, owing to the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and Fenton-like catalysis. It is noticeable that the Ag3PO4/CuO composites retain efficient performance even after five cycling runs. The catalytic mechanism involves matched band structures, Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism, and the generation of a large amount of hydroxyl radicals. (C) 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.