Emerging a highly efficient eco-friendly photocatalyst to degrade harmful antibiotic pollutants is most favorable. In this work, we constructed an oxygen defect-rich ZIF-8 derived carbon (C)-ZnO/Ag₃PO₄ heterostructure by a simple solution method for sulfonamide (SNs) degradation. Several characterization techniques were studied to explore the structural, morphological, and elemental nature of the obtained catalysts. The optimum catalyst of ZIF-8 derived C-ZnO/Ag₃PO₄ heterostructure (AZ2) shows the highest degradation efficiency due to the enhanced electron-hole separation process and efficient light absorption behavior. The AZ2 catalyst exhibits 98.5% degradation efficiency and a rate constant of 0.0361 min⁻¹ towards sulfonamide (SNs) pollutants in 90 min under visible light irradiation. Moreover, active species trapping experiment and electron spin resonance (ESR) results reveal that both .O₂- and ^.OH radicals play a crucial part in degrading the SNs pollutants. This work pathway for developing a ZIF-derived metal oxide catalyst for eliminating harmful antibiotic pollutants in the aquatic environment.