Abstract: As a newly developed visible-light responsive semiconductor photocatalyst, elemental red phosphorus (red P) has attracted extensive attention in the field of visible-light driven photocatalytic energy conversion and environmental remediation due to its advantages of suitable band gap, unique electronic structure, stable chemical properties, low price and easy availability. The physical and chemical properties, preparation methods, modification research of elemental red phosphorus photocatalyst, as well as the photocatalytic reaction mechanism of red phosphorus based composite photocatalysts were thoroughly reviewed in this paper. Moreover, perspectives for the future development of red phosphorus photocatalyst were proposed.