Abstract
The demand for fossil fuels has been increasing over the last few decades but will one day be depleted and researchers are now using biomass to alleviate the fuel crisis. This paper concentrates on a range of current devices with intrinsic solar energy collection, conversion and storage properties, different classes of cells as well as their areas of application and recent research advances. Nanomaterials, meanwhile, are key to making significant progress in the study of photovoltaic electrodes for solar rechargeable batteries, and this paper describes seven currently commonly used semiconductor and nanomaterials. This not only alleviates the severe environmental pollution and greenhouse effect caused by fossil fuels, but also makes a significant contribution to the sustainability of human existence.