Sunlight harvested: A historical evolution of materials for photovoltaics, solar fuels, photocatalysis, and emerging light-charged devices

This review treats sunlight as a central driving resource for sustainable technologies and analyzes how materials have been developed to capture, convert, and store solar energy in distinct yet related functional pathways. A historically grounded and cross-disciplinary framework is applied to four main classes of sunlight-driven processes: conversion of solar radiation to electricity, storage of solar energy in chemical bonds, photocatalytic degradation of pollutants, and direct light-assisted energy storage. The evolution of photovoltaic systems is examined from crystalline and multicrystalline silicon to thin-film absorbers, dye-sensitized and organic solar cells, and contemporary metal halide perovskites and tandem configurations, with emphasis on the interplay between efficiency, stability, and material availability. Photoelectrochemical and catalytic routes to solar fuel production are analyzed with specific attention to the development of metal oxides, molecular complexes, nanostructured catalysts, and selective CO₂ reduction systems as platforms for storing sunlight in chemical bonds. Photocatalytic environmental remediation is considered in the context of semiconductor design, interfacial charge-transfer processes, and the integration of light-harvesting materials into water and air treatment schemes. Recent advances in light-charged and photo-assisted energy storage, including photo-batteries, photo-supercapacitors, redox-based solar energy storage concepts, and photo-responsive concentration cells, are evaluated as emerging approaches that seek to couple photon absorption, charge separation, and storage within unified device architectures. Across these domains, the study identifies recurrent materials design principles, including band gap and band alignment optimization, catalyst coordination environment, interfacial and kinetic control, operational durability, reliance on abundant and low-toxicity elements, and life-cycle compatibility with large-scale deployment. By comparing these trajectories within a single analytical framework, the work delineates common patterns of technological success and failure and defines realistic directions for the rational development of adaptive molecular, hybrid, and semiconductor materials for next-generation sunlight-driven energy and environmental technologies.