A small organic sensitizer, the polyene-diphenylaniline dye D5, was compared with the standard sensitizer N719 (Ru(dcbPY)(2)(NCS)(2)) in a dyesensitized solar cell investigation. In solar cells with relatively thin layers of mesoporous TiO2 (< 3 mu m) D5 outperformed N719 because of its high extinction coefficient. D5 showed also better performance than N719 in the case of sensitization of mesoporous ZnO. In solid-state solar cells, where the iodide/triiodide electrolyte was replaced by an amorphous hole conductor (spiro-OMeTAD), D5 gave promising preliminary results. The hole conductivity, observed in monolayers of D5 adsorbed at TiO2, may possibly lead to improved performance in such cells. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.