Plasmonic copper nanowires@Ti0(2) (Cu NWs@Ti0(2)) core -shell nanostructures are synthesized and applied for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Both experimental and theoretical studies (Finite Difference Time Domain Simulation) reveal that doping of the Cu NWs@Ti02 nanostructures into the TiO2 photo anodes can enhance the light absorption of dye molecules and the carrier's separation through the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and plasmonic waveguide (PW) effects, and thus significantly improve the light harvesting efficiency of the device. The optimized doped DSSCs show the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.44%, which is 23.40% higher than that of undoped DSSCs (7.65%). (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.