In this article, ternary oxides NiCo2O4 with morphologies of nanosheets, nanorods and nanoflowers have been synthesized by the thermal treatment of the precursors which were fabricated via a hydrothermal process. The materials were then used as counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The DSSCs equipped with NiCo2O4 nanoflowers CE achieved excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.48%, which is higher than that of counter parts of NiCo2O4 nanosheets (3.57%), NiCo2O4 nanorods (6.84%) and Pt (8.11%) CEs. Transmission electron microscopy image shows that the NiCo2O4 nanoflowers have the best porous 3-dimensional spatial structure. This study offers a self-assembled synthetic route to prepare NiCo2O4 nanoflowers. The unique structure exhibits high efficient performance and excellent catalytic activity, which may open a new window to use ternary oxides for greatly extending potential applications in dye-sensitized solar cells and other related fields. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.