A mesoscopic platinized graphite/carbon black counter electrode for monolithic dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is developed. Compared with the pure carbon electrode, its catalytic activity and charge transfer rate are improved notably. The 0.5% Pt loading carbon electrode indicates an electrochemical active surface of 109.37 m(2) g(-1), which is higher than 86.58 m(2) g(-1) of the pure carbon electrode. As a result, high energy conversion efficiency up to 7.61% is obtained for monolithic DSSC based on this mesoscopic platinized graphite/carbon black electrode. It could be expected that this low cost mesoscopic platinized graphite/carbon black and simple manufacturing process would make the carbon catalyst-based monolithic DSSC available in practical application. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.