SnO2 coated urchin-like TiO2 hollow microspheres are prepared via a facile one-step hydrothermal method by using titanium tetrabutoxide (TBOT) as titanium source. The synthesized products are characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM measurements. It's found that the as-prepared microspheres with a diameter of 500-800 nm are consisted of densely interconnected nanowires and possessed a high specific surface area of 134.92 m(2) g(-1). Moreover, HRTEM and element mapping results show that the surface of urchin-like microsphere is coated by lots of SnO2 nanoparticles. When used as scattering layer for dye-sensitized solar cells, the microspheres show good dye adsorption capability, superior light scattering and electron diffusibility, leading to a higher photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 833%, which is a 28.4% enhancement comparable to that of bare nanocrystalline TiO2 (Dyesol 18NR-T, 6.49%). (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.