An improved approach for highly selective detection and removal of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and its isomers, via Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) platform using ZnO modified gold nanocomposites (ZnO-Au NCs) as the effective substrate with the real environmental sample of reservoir soil was reported. The synthesized ZnO-Au NCs were characterized by using UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). GC-MS spectra confirm the presence of PCBs in reservoir soil. The isomers of tetrachlorobiphenyl were detected by using SERS as low concentration level even at 6 mM. The high photocatalytic activity of these ZnO-Au NCs substrate can degrade the pollutants in the soil under UV irradiation. The apparent rate constant of the catalytic reaction of reservoir soil extract in the presence of ZnO-Au NCs is 0.021/min. The SERS and photocatalytic degradation experimental result show that ZnO-Au NCs is a good candidate for the detection and degradation of organic pollutants. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.