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Titanium dioxide mesoporous microspheres with high surface area was successfully prepared by a facile one-step hydrothermal approach using polyethylene glycol (PEG, MW 200) as the soft template. Study shows that ∼15 nm TiO2 nanoparticles was assembled into ∼1.1 μm mesoporous microspheres. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of TiO2 microsphere is up to 137 m2/g. TiO2 mesoporous microspheres were fabricated onto the surface of fluorine-doped tin oxide glass and used as the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells, which exhibits an open circuit photovoltage of 0.80 V and an overall conversion efficiency of 6.6%. Owing to the enhanced dye loading and light-harvesting efficiency, a 26% improvement in the overall conversion efficiency was achieved when compared with the commercial Degussa P25 nanoparticles.

Novel microsphere assembly of multi-sized TiO 2 branched nanorods were successfully fabricated via a hydrothermal method. We demonstrate the direct formation of CdS QDs on TiO 2 microspheres films by sequential chemical bath deposition. The as-prepared film was characterized by X-ray diffractmeter (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. Study show CdS sensitized branched TiO 2 multisized nanorods film electrode have a better solar cell performance with a high open-circuit photovoltage of 0.68 V, a short-circuit current of 2.53 mA/cm 2 and a conversion efficiency of 0.71%.