TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: Semiconductive coating contains silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), germanium (Ge), gallium aluminum nitride (GaN), gallium phosphide (GaP), cadmium sulfide (CdS), cadmium selenide (CdSe), titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), tantalum:TiO2 (Ta:TiO2), niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5), tin dioxide (SnO2), tungsten trioxide (WO3), iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3), strontium titanate (SrTiO3), barium titanate (BaTiO3), nickel(II) oxide (NiO), copper oxide (Cu2O), molybdenum trioxide (MoO3), CuMO2, and/or perovskite structures of formula AB'X3. Catalyst is attached to chromophore, semiconductive coating, in solution in porous structure, or located remotely with respect to porous structure and consists of iridium, Fe, Co, ruthenium, osmium, nickel, manganese, platinum, palladium, transition metal, transition metal oxide, and/or transition metal complex. Electrically conductive nanoparticles contain zinc-doped tin oxide, tin-doped indium oxide, fluorine-doped tin oxide, antimony tin oxide, gallium zinc oxide, indium zinc oxide, copper aluminum oxide, fluorine-doped zinc oxide, magnesium-doped copper chromium oxide, Sr2Cu2O2, doped delafossite conducting oxide material based on CuMO2, graphene, carbon, aluminum zinc oxide, organic dyes, aromatic compounds, organic conducting polymers, polymers with conjugated bonds, and/or charge-transfer molecular complexes. The electrode has a barrier layer coating on semiconductive coating which contains alumina, tin oxide, zirconium oxide, silicon oxide, and/or magnesium oxide. Multilayered structure consists of SnO2/TiO2, SnO2/TiO2/Al2O3, SnO2/ZnO/TiO2, SnO2/ZnO/TiO2/Al2O3, ZnO/TiO2, ZnO/TiO2/Al2O3, and/or NiO/Al2O3.M=Al, Ga, Cr, Fe, In, Y, B, Sc, Mn, Co, and/or Rh; andA, B', X=not defined.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Components: Chromophore contains monomer, oligomers, and/or polymer. Chromophore contains porphyrin, pyrene, perylene, xanthene, phthalocyanine, coumarin, rhodamine, buckminsterfullerene, thiophene, transition metal polypyridyl complex, ferrocene, methyl viologen, and/or donor-acceptor dye.