Tetracycline with high solubility and biodegradation-resistance has been widely detected from both surface and ground water, and has been proved negative impact on water environment and human health. Adsorption is considered as an environment-friendly and efficient approach to deal with TC contamination in wastewater treatment. In this work, KOH activating municipal wasted sludge biochar with different amounts of nanoscale Fe/Cu was prepared and used to remove TC from water with high performance. The removal efficiency of the composite was found to be significantly improved after loading Fe/Cu particles and the highest removal amount could reach to 386.93 mg/g under the optimum molar ratio of Fe:Cu = 5:3. The analytical results of isotherms, kinetics and thermodynamics suggested that the excellent removal performance of TC by the composite was involved many mechanisms, such as physical adsorption, hydrogen bonding, pi-pi interaction, complexation and electron transfer. The removal mechanisms of TC and the characteristics of composite were also confirmed by FTIR, XRD, XPS and BET determination. The excellently improved adsorption capacity, environmental-friendly and readily-made properties entrusted the novel sludge based composite with great potential for TC removal from wastewater. (C) 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.