A metalized plastic substrate made of a polyimide film coated with a Ni/Pt bi-layer is prepared as counterelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Surface metallization of Ni/Pt on polyimide is carried out via a chemical process, where top Pt acts as the catalyst and bottom Ni is the conduction/light-reflection layer. This counterelectrode possesses superior sheet resistance (0.173 Omega/square) and charge transfer resistance (0.38 Omega cm(2)). The DSSC based on this metalized polyimide counterelectrode exhibits an enhanced fill factor (0.7), and accordingly its energy conversion efficiency achieves 7.12%, which is better than those assembled with other platinized counterelectrodes prepared by sputtering. (C) 2011 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3577681] All rights reserved.