In this work, we reported two new quinoxaline-based sensitizers (BQI and BQII) for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSSCs) featuring carboxylic acid and pyridine as anchoring groups, respectively, in combination with triphenylamine donor. The optical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of BQI and BQII were investigated. Results showed that BQI-based p-DSSC with carboxylic acid anchoring group obtained higher photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.140%. To further optimize the device performance, we added a layer of TiO2 on the surface of NiO film as a barrier layer, which contributed to the improvement of the photocurrent density from 3.00 to 3.84 mA cm(-2). The p-DSSCs based on BQI reached the PCE of 0.20% at an irradiance of 100 mW cm(-2) simulated AM1.5 sunlight. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis indicated that the hole recombination resistance of p-DSSCs with TiO2 barrier layer was larger than that of the naked NiO film. Meanwhile, the surface profile of TiO2 on NiO film was verified by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.