A D-π-A metal-free organic dye, featuring salicylic acid as a novel acceptor/anchoring unit, has been designed, synthesized and applied to dye-sensitized solar cell. The detailed photophysical, electrochemical, photovoltaic and sensitizing properties of the organic dye were investigated, in addition to the computational studies of the dye and dye-(TiO2)6 system. A solar cell device using this new organic dye as a sensitizer produced a solar to electric power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.49% (J(sc) = 6.69 mAcm-2, V(oc) = 0.74 V and ff = 0.70) under 100 mWcm(-2) simulated AM 1.5 G solar irradiation, demonstrating that the salicylic acid-based organic dye is a suitable alternative to currently used organometallic dyes.