Abstract: Improved photocatalytic and photovoltaic materials wherein an additional energy transfer pathway is available between an optical illumination source and a targeted adsorbate molecule. Dielectric particles are sized and shaped to produce electron excitations and subsequent user-defined chemical transformation without exceeding a band gap energy barrier of the dielectric. Thus, energy transfers that occur between the novel dielectric material and the target adsorbate happen via Mie resonance mediated energy and electron transfer (MRET), which possesses the unique trait of having the capacity to occur below the conduction band.