N-doped TiO2 was further doped with SiO2 to prepare SiO2/N-doped TiO2 photoelectrodes with high activity in the visible region. A sol-gel process was employed to produce nanoparticles of SiO2/N-doped TiO2. The addition of SiO2 to the metal oxide enhanced charge transfer and reduced charge recombination. With the addition of sufficient amounts of SiO2 and N, the photoelectrodes exhibited a high surface area and strong absorption of light because of their altered absorptivity in the visible wavelength region. These characteristics enabled the production of photoelectrodes with increased charge transfer and reduced charge recombination, resulting in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with enhanced J(sc) values. The SiO2/N-doped TiO2 photoelectrodes were characterized using a range of analysis techniques. After the J-V curve measurements, the DSSCs fabricated with the 0.1 mM SiO2/N-doped TiO2 photo electrodes exhibited the highest energy conversion efficiency of 8.68%, which was approximately 3% higher than that of the N-doped TiO2 control groups. This high energy efficiency with the addition of SiO2 might be due to the enhanced surface area of the photoelectrodes, allowing more dye absorption, and a decrease in electron recombination. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.