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[Display omitted] • A novel inorganic perovskite nanomaterial, AlMo 0.5 O 3 , was synthesized. • Several AlMo 0.5 O 3 amounts were added to the TiO 2 photoanode of DSSCs. • The highest efficiency of 5.30% was measured for the cell containing 0.5% AlMo 0.5 O 3. • The champion device exhibited J SC = 10.96 mA.cm−2, V OC = 0.76 V and FF = 0.64. • The lowest recombination of charge carriers was happened in the champion DSSC. To enhance the photovoltaic efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), tri-layered photoanodes composed of compact, mesoporous and light scattering TiO 2 layers were fabricated. Moreover, inorganic AlMo 0.5 O 3 perovskite nanomaterial was synthesized using sol gel method and different AlMo 0.5 O 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites were achieved by adding various amounts (0–3.0%) of the AlMo 0.5 O 3 nanoparticles to the mesoporous TiO 2 layer in the photoanode. All of the nanocomposite photoanodes and the AlMo 0.5 O 3 nanostructure were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, DRS, photoluminescence (PL) and FT-IR analysis techniques. Also, the effect of AlMo 0.5 O 3 nanoparticles on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the DSSC devices was examined. The measured optical band gaps of all nanocomposite photoanodes were calculated in the range of 2.68–3.10 eV. The photovoltaic parameters extracted from the J-V plots of the DSSCs illustrated that the champion cell fabricated using mesoporous TiO 2 + 0.5%AlMo 0.5 O 3 nanocomposite photoanode had PCE = 5.30% with J SC = 10.96 mA.cm−2, V OC = 0.76 V and FF = 0.64. This result revealed that the TiO 2 + 0.5%AlMo 0.5 O 3 composite increased the device efficiency by 2.79 times as compared to the DSSC fabricated using bare TiO 2 (champion PCE = 1.90% with J SC = 7.90 mA.cm−2, V OC = 0.67 V and FF = 0.36). Comparing the J SC and V OC values of the champion device with those of the DSSC with bare TiO 2 photoanode confirmed that incorporation of the AlMo 0.5 O 3 in TiO 2 layer highly improved the charge transfer in the device and simultaneously declined the recombination of charge carriers. Hence, the perovskite AlMo 0.5 O 3 could be suggested as an efficient nanomaterial for application in DSSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel titania comprising nanoparticles grown on nanorods explored as photoanodes. • 1D TiO 2 nanostructures with large specific surface area and suitable porosity. • Significant current density (J sc) of 15.84 mA/cm2 and efficiency (η) of 7.64%. • Enhanced current density (37%) and efficiency (41%) compared to P25 precursor. In this work, the impact of alkali concentration on the formation of novel one dimensional TiO 2 nanostructures has been studied. The variation of alkali concentration resulted in the change of morphology and structure of P25 nanoparticle precursors under hydrothermal conditions, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The effects of the annealing temperatures on the surface oxygen vacancies were also studied under various temperatures. In higher NaOH concentrations under annealing, these nanostructures have a peculiar appearance consisting in nanorods with nanoparticles grown on their surface and hence designated herein as "integrated TiO 2 nanorods". The prepared nanostructures were employed as main precursors of photoanode and their performance was fully investigated in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). TiO 2 nanostructures prepared from 12 M alkaline solution at 300 °C had the largest specific surface area (363.15 m2/g) and the best efficiency improvement was about 41% for these TiO 2 nanostructures compared to the P25 nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]