A nanoparticulate metal oxide material that has almost become a standard component in many varieties of advanced photovotaics. The nanoparticles are deposited as a mesoporous thin film on conductive glass. In a 10 micrometer thick thin film, the increased surface area can be 1000x more than that of a regular, flat silicon wafer. The nanoparticles are crystalline, and primarily composed of the phase of titanium dioxide called anatase.