Titanium (IV) bis (ammonium lactato) dihydroxide (TALH) was employed to prepare anatase TiO2 sol where titania in a crystallite size of 3 nm. Both the sol and TALH solution were further subjected to be hydrothermal treated at 200 C to grow the crystallite size be most appropriate for the photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The DSSCs with photoanodes derived from the sol-hydrothermal TiO2 exhibited the overall energy conversion efficiency (eta) of 7.8%, while the DSSCs with photoanodes derived from the TALH direct hydrothermal (DH) showed a higher eta of 8.9%. Moreover, the as-prepared anatase TiO2 sol prior to the hydrothermal treatment was used as substitute for TiCl4 solution to modify the porous DH TiO2 photoanodes, and the DSSCs achieved overall energy conversion efficiency as high as of 9.3%, due to the extremely fine anatase nanocrystals in the TiO2 sol improved the connection between the TiO2 nanocrystals more significantly compared to the TiCl4 treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.