Harvesting visible light of the solar spectrum by coupled semiconductor based systems is advantageous for photocatalytic as well as photovoltaic applications. One pot synthesis of several CdS/CeO2 nanomaterials has been carried out without using expensive surfactants, capping agents and molecular linkers. Various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and BET surface area were used to characterize the samples. XRD and Raman spectroscopic data provided the information about the presence of both CdS and CeO2 phases. TEM proves the proper dispersion and well connectivity between the CdS and CeO2 which may be due to the single step synthesis of the composites. UV-vis spectroscopy reveals the absorption in both UV and visible regions due to the presence of both CeO2 and CdS. The visible light activity of the composites have been ascribed by the H2 production from water by using sacrificial reagents, simultaneous removal of phenol and Cr(VI) from aqueous streams. Among the synthesized composites CdS/CeO2 (1:1) has shown superior activity which can be attributed to the optimum sensitization of CeO2 which induces enhanced electron transfer from CdS to CeO2 that decreases the exciton recombination. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.