Cerium phosphate hybrid nanocomposites for photoelectrocatalytic environmental remediation and energy sustainability

Highly acidic nature, tunable redox behavior, and exceptional electronic structure of CePO₄ were exploited in photoelectrocatalysis processes. CePO₄ integrated hybrid composites including metallic-non-metallic ions and plasmonic NPs, metal oxides, carbonaceous materials (GO, g-C₃N₄), and metal phosphides (CoP₂, MoP, etc) have been discussed. A comparative analysis was presented to demonstrate the influence of CePO₄ integration with narrow bandgap materials, which significantly improves the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, photoconversion of CO₂, and electrocatalytic H₂ evolution reaction (HER), O₂ evolution reaction (OER), N₂ fixation, and other electrocatalytic processes. CePO₄ NCs under photo-driven energy promote environmentally friendly energy generation, CO₂ reduction, breakdown of dyes, herbicides, antibiotics, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and hydrocarbons. Along with new approaches like O₂ vacancy engineering, dopant modification, Z-scheme heterojunctions (HJs), and plasmon-induced catalysis for working around these restrictions, important issues like restricted visible-light absorption, charge recombination degradation, and catalyst stability are also covered. This overview highlights the potential of CePO₄₋derived hybrid catalysts to tackle global issues in carbon capture, renewable energy generation, and water purification by analyzing the most recent developments in this field. Doping engineering and formation of the hybrid junction with carbonaceous materials could be a turning point to greatly improve the photocatalytic performance for future-oriented environmentally friendly energy and ecological applications, which provides insights into innovative material design techniques and scalable implementation in practical applications. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.