Photo-excited holes usually migrate to the surface of the catalyst and rapidly recombine with electrons, reducing the photocatalytic reduction efficiency of uranium(VI) (U(VI)) in radioactive wastewater. Consequently, we employed a straightforward synthesis technique to meticulously shape and manipulate the morphology of CdS to precisely construct CdS-Ni dandelion-like composites with different aspect ratios. Briefly, the introduction of crystal facet homojunction with Ohmic contacts in this unique morphology siqnificantly improves the photocatalytic efficiency. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy (TD-PL) verifies that the composite material positively effects on the dissociation of excitons. Within 30 min, CdS(002)/(102)/Ni-4 removed 98% of the uranium content in solution and showed a rather high apparent rate constant (0.114 min⁻¹), which was 4.8 times higher than that of CdS nanospheres (NSs) (0.024 min⁻¹) and 3.7 times higher than that of CdS nanorods (NRs) (0.031 min⁻¹). This is much higher the most reported photocatalysts for U(VI) reduction. Even after 5 consecutive cycles, the photocatalytic efficiency only decreased by 7%. This offers a fresh perspective on constructing a new perspective for building a green, efficient, and multi mechanism collaborative catalytic system to remediate environmental pollution.

N-Heterocycle compounds are crucial scaffolds in natural products, synthetic molecules, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Hence, green catalytic systems for the synthesis of N-heterocycles have been widely researched in organic synthesis and industrial catalysis. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are polynuclear metal–oxygen clusters with diverse structures and physicochemical properties. POMs exhibit multiple advantageous properties such as adjustable acidity, redox properties, high thermal stability, and nontoxic nature. Therefore, POMs have been widely investigated for their application in N-heterocycles synthesis and held great potential for industrial applications. In this review, we summarize recent advances (mainly from 2010 to 2023) in the synthesis of N-heterocycles, such as pyrroles, indoles, pyridines, and benzodiazepines, catalyzed by heteropolyacids (HPAs), modified HPA catalysts, and transition metal-modified POMs. The prospects of POM-based catalytic systems for the synthesis of N-heterocycles are also outlined.