<p>One of the effective ways to develop highly efficient nanostructured photo-electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells is to design ZnO samples containing trivalent cations. In our study, ZnO: Al nanorods were produced onto different ZnO nucleation centers by hydrothermal method and hexamethylenediamine, which is rarely preferred in literature, was used as a capping-agent. Nucleation centers provided positive changes in the length, diameter and crystallization of ZnO: Al nanorods. The trap energy levels of ZnO: Al nanorod arrays were determined as 2.969&#xa0;eV and 2.450&#xa0;eV and nanostructured electrodes increased the sunlight utilization capacity. The high molarity sol reduced the charge transfer resistance of ZnO: Al electrodes from 190.2 kΩ to 140.8 kΩ and thus reduced the recombinations at the interface. Corrosion current densities were determined as 170 nA/cm² and 156 nA/cm². Partial dissolution of the ZnO film and Zn²⁺-dye ligand complex formations in the acidic dye sensitizer, which are responsible for anodic corrosion, were minimized by the ZnO passive shield. The concentrations of adsorbed N719-dye for ZnO: Al nanorods were calculated as 40.25&#xa0;mg/L and 75.79&#xa0;mg/L. As a result, ZnO electrodes with low charge transfer resistance, low corrosion rate and high dye adsorption ability were successfully synthesized by using Al element and capping-agent.</p>