The morphological evolution of specimen taken out after the different duration in TiCl3 solution was investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The rutile TiO2 splitting microspheres may be formed by the splitting crystal growth mechanism through the multistep process. The microsphere composed of the 20 nm width nanorods was in the range of 1.5-2.5 pm in the diameter. The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) based on the microspheres received 3.57% conversion efficiency under simulated AM 1.5 (100 mW/cm(2)) solar illumination, which exhibited remarkably higher charge collection efficiency and light scattering compared to that of P25. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement revealed that impedance resistance at the surface of single-crystalline rutile TiO2 splitting microspheres was 6 times larger than that of P25 nanoparticles, indicating electron recombination was significantly retarded. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.