Display omitted •PAgT composite exhibited effective disinfection on various pathogenic bacteria.•Antimicrobial behaviors between Gram +ve and Gram −ve were comparatively studied.•Silicone glue-immobilized PAgT system showed excellent stability and reusability.•Photocatalysis and mechanical stress showed synergistic effect on disinfection process.•The newly immobilized catalytic system holds great potential for real water sterilization. In this study, we reported an effective visible light-assisted photocatalytic disinfection toward various representative pathogenic bacteria over a highly reusable glue-immobilized P/Ag/Ag2O/Ag3PO4/TiO2 (PAgT) system. The results showed that the PAgT photocatalyst could rapidly kill all pathogenic bacteria isolated from real water environment, including Gram-positive (+ve) (Enterococcus sp. and Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (−ve) (Escherichia coli and Salmonella), both in single and mixed bacteria system. Compared to Gram −ve bacterium, the inactivation of Gram +ve bacterium was more resistant to the photocatalytic treatment, which was mainly ascribed to their thicker peptidoglycan layers in cell walls. In addition, using silicone glue as a binder provided a strong adhesion between the solid matrix and catalyst particles thus making the immobilized PAgT highly reusable. More strikingly, it was found that the enhanced antibacterial performance of immobilized PAgT system was due to a synergistic effect of disinfection mechanism combining the improved photocatalysis on the introduction of heterojunction structure, and the mechanical stress driven from the composite sharp edge morphology. Hence, the present results of the photocatalytic disinfection toward a broad range of pathogenic bacteria, with excellent activity, stability and reusability, reveals the possibility of the developed silicone glue-immobilized PAgT in real water sterilization.