Emerging LaCoO3-derived photocatalysts for wastewater remediation and energy conversion: Mechanisms, performance, and challenges

In recent years, the perovskite oxides have gained attention due to their tunable oxygen vacancies, high electrical conductivity, and their adaptive catalytic behaviour which makes them valuable for environmental and energy related technologies. Among these perovskite materials Lanthanum cobaltate, (LaCoO 3 ) that is La-based perovskite is notable due to its abundance, stability and its high catalytic activity. The A-site having La 3+ and B-site transition metal configuration helps in providing adjustable electronic structure, along with efficient charge transfer, and response towards visible-light. These aspects give significant characterisation. These characteristics are significant physiochemical properties which supports pollutant degradation, hydrogen evolution, and CO 2 reduction. This review has pointed out underlying properties of LaCoO 3 and has offered a step-by-step description of the synthesis techniques, and includes Sol- gel, hydrothermal, and coprecipitation routes. Moreover, further modification plans like doping ensued heterojunction formation with tuning performance of LaCoO 3 . Importance is laid on the engineering of the LaCoO 3 -based composites, offering better charge separation, enhanced light harvesting and enhanced catalytic efficiency of degradation of organic pollutants and stimulating solar-fuel reactions. In general, the review has the implementation of the transformation of LaCoO 3 into a classical perovskite oxide to a very versatile photocatalyst, which provides a vision that guides the designing of the next-generation perovskites-based catalytic systems.