Today’s industrial era much demands self-cleaning materials and coatings for window glass, cement, textile, paint, and solar panel with a wide range of application. The photocatalytic activity and superhydrophilicity are the two main properties contributed to self-cleaning property. ZnO and TiO2 as metal oxide semiconductors have played a vital role in the construction of materials for photocatalytic applications owing to its bandgap energy, low cost and easy fabrication. However, wide bandgap energy restricts their visible light absorption and also possess high refractive index which limits its application as antireflective self-cleaning coatings. This can be avoided by doping, surface modification, heterojunctions, dye sensitization, hybridization with graphitic monolayers. Creating defect levels between bands and combination of ZnO and TiO2 with graphene and carbon doped ZnO nanostructures were developed for better visible light photocatalysis and self-cleaning coating applications.