The use of nanostructured materials represents a breakthrough in many fields of applications owing to their enhanced functionalities. In this framework, newly designed spongy TiO2 layers are deposited by a reactive sputtering method based on a grazing-incidence geometry combined with the local oxidation of the species (gig-lox). The deposited material gains 50% porosity in volume through depths of hundreds of nanometers and consists of a forest of uniform rods separated by meso-pores (pipelines for dye diffusion) arising from the grazing geometry; the rods, on their side, have an internal branched structure creating an interconnected network of nano-pores with sizes in the 3–5 nm range. The gig-lox TiO2 layer, sensitised with a standard Ru-complex (N-719), is tested as a scaffold for dye chemisorption and charge injection/collection. We demonstrate that the interconnected array of pores allows a deep and …