Nanocrystalline mesoporous titania was obtained by surfactant-assisted templating method using tetraisopropyl orthotitanate modified with acethylacetone and laurylamine hydrochloride as template. This material was applied for the electrode of dye-sensitized solar cell. The mesoporous TiO2 (MP-TiO2) cells exhibited higher short-circuit photocurrent density and solar energy conversion efficiency compared to P25 (a typical commercial titania powder) cells. The incident photon to current conversion efficiency spectrum of MP-TiO2 can be improved by using the cell made with 5% P25 additive. Double-layer titania cells were fabricated to further improve cell performance by increasing the film thickness and light scattering. The solar conversion efficiency up to 8.06% was obtained by using the double-layer titania cell sintered at 450 degrees C for 2 h. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.v.