Polyaniline-grafted silica nanocomposites (PANI-SiO2), which are synthesized through in-situ surface chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline with the NH2-modified silica nanoparticles, are exploited as gelators in the ionic-liquid electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). It can be clearly seen that the PANI-SiO2 nanocomposites have the well-interconnected network structure, which not only serve as gelators to effectively solidfy the ionic-liquid electrolytes, but also significantly improve the ion conductivity of electrolytes and the diffusion coefficient of I-3(-) ions. As a result, an optimal efficiency of 7.15% for DSC using gel electrolyte is achieved due to the enhancement of photocurrent density (J(sc)) and fill factor (FF), which is increased by 18.99% than that of the cell using ionic-liquid electrolyte. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.