In the present work, nickel–zinc oxide (Ni-ZnO) particles have been fabricated through a modified polyol route at 250°C. The highly porous Ni-ZnO samples developed were of high crystalline quality and exhibited great potential for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications on account of the quadrupled intensity values of short-circuit current density of around 1.42 mA/cm2, in contrast to 0.31 mA/cm2 for a bare zinc oxide (ZnO) device. The conversion efficiency of the Ni-ZnO DSSC was measured to be 0.416% which is ∼ 6 times higher than that a of ZnO solar cell. Detailed characterization techniques including x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were performed on the samples. The Ni-ZnO samples were found to be crystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite lattice structure. The improved efficiency of Ni-ZnO stems from the enhanced absorption and large surface area of the composite.