Adsorption of phthalocyanines lacking conventional attaching substituents onto nanostructured TiO2 electrodes has been studied, and some of the important factors for sensitization have been identified. Tetradimethoxyphenyl phthalocyanine (2) and tetra-Ph phthalocyanine (3), derived from 4-(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)phthalonitrile and 4-phenylphthalonitrile, resp., successfully sensitize nanostructured TiO2 electrodes, with IPCEmax of 9 and 5% at λ = 650 nm. The dye-oxide systems have been characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and photoelectrochem. methods, and the dye-surface interactions are discussed.