Three different types of TiO 2 nano powders were synthesized by a solution combustion synthesis (SCS) method using three different fuels and for comparison, another type of TiO 2 nano powder was synthesized by calcination of titanyl hydroxide. These TiO 2 nano powders were used to fabricate photoelectrodes for the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and their performance was compared to that of the DSSC fabricated with Degussa P25 TiO 2 . The results showed that the SCS TiO 2 could work well as photoelectrode for DSSC. The SCS TiO 2 contained impurities of C and/or S, thus exhibiting visible light absorption and reduced band gap. The open circuit voltage and the fill factor both varied little among the various TiO 2 and thus both had little effect on the photoelectrical conversion efficiency (η). However, the variation of η was seen to be in quite a good agreement with that of the short circuit current (I SC ), suggesting that η was dominated by I SC . I SC was found to be enhanced by light scattering effect due to the presence of large particles but reduced by high impurity content due to an increase in electron transfer resistance. In addition, the specific surface area of the powders was found to be an important factor affecting the I SC and thus the η.