A study of chemical and electrochemical polishing, with and without 2 step anodization, intending to evaluate the effect of the surface roughness on TiO2 nanotube arrays formation and in dye-sensitized solar cells performance is performed. Titanium foil substrates were chemically polished (CP) and electrochemically polished (EL) prior to the anodization process for nanotube growth. The effect of the polishing treatments on the nanotube arrays morphology was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) characterization. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated, with the produced nanotube arrays, and characterized intending to evaluate the effect of the Ti foil substrate surface polishing treatment on the device conversion efficiency. Photocurrent density-voltage characteristics (J-V curves) were measured under AM1 illumination at room temperature and the devices photocurrent density (J(sc)), open circuit voltage (V-oc), fill factor (FF), efficiency (%) and parallel resistance (R-SH) values were extracted. The best results are obtained for the chemical polishing process where nanotube arrays without bundles and without "nanograss" presence were obtained promoting higher DSSCs photocurrent density values. These results emphasize the importance of a plane and smooth titanium substrate surface for nanotubes synthesis and further device processing. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.