A vertically aligned TiO 2 photoelectrode with sufficient space between TiO 2 nanorods was synthesized by sacrificial templating of ZnO nanorods grown on a dense TiO 2 layer/FTO film. The more expanded pore space in the TiO 2 nanorod film than conventional mesoscopic TiO 2 film greatly reduces the mass transport problem of cobalt electrolyte in the vicinity of the Sb 2 S 3 sensitizer in Sb 2 S 3 -sensitized photoelectrochemical solar cells. Therefore, the nonlinearity of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) under illumination intensity was greatly relieved to 5.0% (0.1sun), 4.7% (0.5sun), and 3.7% (1sun) in a TiO 2 -nanorod-based Sb 2 S 3 -sensitized solar cell, whereas the efficiency of a mesoscopic-TiO 2 -based solar cell was significantly degraded to 5.3% (0.1 sun), 3.8% (0.5sun), and 2.3% (1sun).