Twenty types of biowastes derived carbon materials (BCM) synthesized by a facile one-step pyrolysis were developed as counter electrodes for the configuration of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The biowastes selected for the BCM preparation were divided into three groups: (i) eleven woods, including weeping willow, phoenix, camphor, Chinese fir, maple, peach, poplar, cypress, tea-oil camellia, orange, and chinaberry; (ii) seven leaves, including pine needles, camphor, palm, maple, poplar, Chinese fir, and red after-wood; and (iii) two papers, namely filter paper and facial tissue. Each of the BCM based DSSCs shows a higher efficiency than the graphite based counterparts. The efficiencies of the DSSCs employing the BCM prepared from woods and leaves vary in a range 1.23% -1.91% and 1.07%-1.85%, respectively, while that of the devices using the graphite is 0.77%. The peak efficiency in both groups of the wood and leaf based cells is achieved by employing the phoenix wood and the palm leaf as the raw materials, respectively. Compared with the porous BCM obtained from the woods and leaves, the fibrous BCM fabricated from the papers show better efficiencies of around 4.70% for use in the DSSCs. The high efficiency is mainly attributed to the superior catalytic activity and faster electron transportation for triiodide (13) reduction induced by the unique morphological and structural characteristics of the paper derived BCM, such as hierarchical fibrous carbon skeletons at nanometer and micron scales, abundant exposed microcrystal edges and defects, rough surface at nanoscale with rich burrs and convex microstructures, and oxygen-containing surface functional groups. Furthermore, the efficiency of the DSSCs employing the paper derived BCM is equal to about 88% of that of the devices using the mesoporous carbon synthesized from the phenolic resin mixtures based on polymerization-induced phase separation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.