Ceria-based nanostructures, employed as catalytic supports for noble and non-noble metals, are well-known for their remarkable activity in steam-reforming reactions, exceptional resistance to degradation, and thermal stability. However, the catalytic activity and selectivity of such systems are strongly dependent on the size and shape of ceria, making it possible to tune the oxide properties, affecting catalyst design and performance. The rational manipulation of ceria nanostructures offers various features that directly impact steam-reforming transformations, including the possibility of tuning oxygen vacancies, redox properties, and oxygen storage capacity. Thus, the importance of shape control in ceria nanomaterials is highlighted herein, emphasizing how the surface atomic configurations (exposure of different facets) significantly impact their efficiency. Although the main focus of this review is to discuss how the catalyst design may affect the performance of hydrogen production, some other elemental studies are shown, when necessary, to exemplify the level of deepness (or not) that literature has reached. Thus, an overview of ceria properties and how the physicochemical control of nanostructures contributes to their tuning will be presented, as well as a discussion regarding elemental materials design and the most prominent synthetic procedures; then, we select some metals (Ni, Co, and Pt) to discuss the understanding of such aspects for the field. Finally, challenges and perspectives for nanoengineering catalysts based on shape-controlled ceria nanostructures will be described to possibly improve the performance of designed catalysts for steam-reforming reactions. Although there are other literature reviews on ceria-based catalysts for these reactions, they do not specifically focus on the influence of the size and shape of the oxide.

In this short communication, alpha-lithium zinc phosphate (-LiZnPO4) in short -LZPO nanostructures were synthesized by a coprecipitation route followed by thermal treatment at 650 ºC for 2 h, aiming at their potential application in supercapacitors. Their crystal structure was investigated by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, confirming high crystallinity and a monoclinic structure belonging to the Cc space group. The morphology, and elemental chemical composition were examined by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, revealing aggregated irregular particles with an average size of approximately 890 nm and detection of elements heavier than carbon. To evaluate their electrochemical properties, the active material was deposited onto nickel (Ni) foam, employed as a conductive current collector substrate. The -LZPO nanostructures||Ni-foam electrode was characterized by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that the cathode-type electrode exhibited a specific capacitance of 419.13 F g⁻¹ at 1 mV s-1 and 255.56 F g-1 at 0.25 A g-1, representing the highest values reported thus far for this material. Furthermore, Ragone plot analysis indicated an energy density of 36 Wh kg-1 and a power density of 250 W kg-1, while a Coulombic efficiency of 88% was achieved. These findings highlight the promising potential of -LZPO electrode as an active material for advanced energy-storage devi