Essential requirement of compact TiO2 thin films for 3-D solar cells prefers high temperature techniques (>= 400 degrees C) such as spray pyrolysis or sputtering. Under optimized preparative conditions, compact, uniform, adherent and pinhole free, TiO2 thin films were synthesized at room temperature by using arrested precipitation technique on ITO substrates. As-deposited and heat-treated TiO2 films were amorphous with small enlargement in grain size as evidenced from XRD and SEM studies. Small blue shift was detected due to annealing and attributed to change in grain size. As deposited and heat-treated TiO2 films were used in this study showed water contact angles 66.14 degrees and 66.44 degrees, respectively. Efforts were also taken to use these films in dye-sensitized solar cells after introducing cis-dithiocyanato (4,4'-dicarboxylic acid-2,2'-bipyridide) ruthenium (II) (N-3) dye but no significant improvement due to low contact angle in photo-electrochemical cell performance was observed due to high compactness. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.