Keywords *OH radicals; beta particles; Lattice oxygen defects; *SO.sub.4 - radicals; Oxytetracycline Highlights * 1. beta particles were used to control the generation of oxygen defects and generate *O. * 2. Free state *O participated in the wet oxidation process of water to obtain *OH radicals. * 3. *OH activates SO.sub.4.sup.2- to produce *SO.sub.4.sup.- radicals and shorten the OTC degradation time. * 4. *OH radicals preferentially attack the unsaturated C = C in OTC to cause ring opening. * 5. The Bi.sup.0(0 0 3) crystal face makes the removal of OTC by Bi.sub.0.32@Bi.sub.1.68WO.sub.5.80 remain at 100%. beta particles were used to dissociate the Bi - O bond in layered microsphere-like Bi.sub.2WO.sub.6 to obtain Bi.sub.x@Bi.sub.2-xWO.sub.n with oxygen defects. Bi.sub.0.32@Bi.sub.1.68WO.sub.5.80 with Bi.sup.0 treated at 4.50 x 10.sup.15 MeV can realize the completely removal of oxytetracycline (OTC) within 20 min. Free radical scavenging experiments showed that the removal rate of OTC for Bi.sub.0.32@Bi.sub.1.68WO.sub.5.80 dropped to 11.39% after removing *OH radicals. Additionally, the LC-MS results revealed that the *OH radicals first oxidized the unsaturated C = C double bond and opened the hexatomic ring, making OTC easier to degrade. The DFT results confirm that the electron cloud density at the oxygen defect site has expand, thereby promoting the photocatalytic reaction. Bi.sub.0.32@Bi.sub.1.68WO.sub.5.80 with lowest O negative polarization rate verified that lattice oxygen defects produced by beta particles enhance the generation of *OH free radicals that activate SO.sub.4.sup.2- to produce *SO.sub.4.sup.- radicals. It is be confirmed that *OH radicals can activate SO.sub.4.sup.2- to form *SO.sub.4.sup.-.This work provides a new strategy for forming oxygen defects in photocatalytic. This work provided a new strategy for the efficient utilization of *OH radicals by beta-rays in the field of catalytic oxidation. Author Affiliation: (a) College of Science, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China (b) School of Nuclear Technology and Chemistry & Biology, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning 437100, China (c) College of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China * Corresponding authors. Article History: Received 22 November 2020; Revised 25 February 2021; Accepted 26 February 2021 Byline: Jing Wang (a), Wenlei Wang wenlei_wang@csuft.edu.cn (a,*), Juntao Wang (b), Kehui Xue (a), Yi Peng (a), Ying Yan (a), Yuanlan Wang (a), Hui Wang (c), Yiqiang Wu wuyiqiang@csuft.edu.cn (c,*)