The photoelectric behavior of a black dye, tris (isothiocyanato)-[N-(2,2':6', 2"-terpyridine-4-(4-carbuxylic acid) phenyl)] ruthenium (II) complex, was examined under different conditions. The dye was adsorbed on nanocrystalline TiO2 surface strongly and generated incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of about 90% at maximum absorption wavelength and greater than 20% in the near-IR region. A sandwich-type solar cell fabricated by this dye-sensitized nanocrystalline TiO2 film generated 6.1 mA cm(-2) of short-circuit photocurrent, 0.58 V of open-circuit photovoltage and 2.9% of overall yield under irradiation of white light (78,0 mW cm(-2)) from a Xe lamp. Since the title dye shows better photoresponse than the N3 dye in the near-IR region, it would be a promising panchromatic sensitizer after optimization. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.