Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) represent a cheap and clean technology to harnesses solar energy efficiently. To further decrease the production cost while improving the device performance is a bottleneck for large scale application and commercialization of DSSCs. The thesis focuses on the development of economically competitive photoelectrodes with the motivation to further enhance energy conversion efficiency of DSSCs. Practical and scalable device fabrication is also proposed and studied in details. In this research, several novel structures of TiO₂ photo-anode beside the TiO₂ nanoparticls thin film have been prepared. A composite of TiO₂ nanoparticles/ 8 nm TiO₂ nanotubes was successfully fabricated as a stand- alone, paper-like structure for a photoanode of dye- sensitized solar cells by using a simple pressing method. The best power conversion efficiency of 5.38% was obtained on micropaper with a combination of TiO₂ nanospherical particles and a 1D nanostructure. Incorporation of double- walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) into a TiO₂ photo-anode layer has been studied. A significant improvement in the performance in the DSSC was obtained from the DWCNTs-TiO₂ photoanode. Comparing to the standard TiO₂ anode, the carbon nanotube-containing TiO₂ anode with 0.2 wt.% DWCNTs has boosted up the photocurrent density (Jsc) by 43%. In order to mitigate the severe performance deterioration in larger size DSSC solar cells, the use of anodized TiO₂ nanotubes was introduced on Ti foil. Instead of FTO glass, the photoanode was made of Ti foil. Elimination of the highly resistive FTO glass in the anode structure, as well as the enhanced charge collection via the nanotube-coated Ti substrate, resulting in improving mechanical and electrical connections, electron conduction and possibly improving the light trapping
