Perovskite-based catalysts for environmental detoxification: mechanistic insights into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon removal and performance constraints

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a family of recalcitrant organic pollutants, and perovskite-type oxides (ABO₃) have become promising catalysts for generating the reactive oxygen species (ROS) required to effectively degrade PAHs. The current review strictly analyses the mechanistic knowledge of PAH oxidation on perovskite catalysts, with a specific focus on oxygen-vacancy engineering, defect chemistry, and structure-activity relationships. This work also establishes significant research gaps when making an effort to correlate the synthesis parameters with redox dynamics and catalytic stability in real environmental circumstances. The innovation of this paper is the creation of a mechanistic platform that incorporates material design, catalytic activation modes and environmental use, which form a strong basis for designing the next generation, sustainable perovskite-based systems to detoxify PAH (SDG 6).