A suitable deposition method of CdS is necessary for the high performance CdS-sensitized ZnO electrodes In this paper, chemical bath deposition (CBD) and sequential chemical bath deposition (S-CBD) methods were used to deposit CdS on ZnO mesoporous films for ZnO/CdS electrodes. The analysis results of XRD patterns and UV-vis spectroscopy indicated that CBD deposition method leaded to the dissolving of ZnO mesoporous films in deposition solution and thickness reduction of ZnO/CdS electrodes Absorption in visible region by the ZnO/CdS electrodes with CdS deposition by S-CBD was enhanced as deposition cycles increased due to the stability of ZnO mesoporous films in the S-CBD deposition solutions. The results of photocurrent voltage (I-V) measurement showed that the performance of ZnO/CdS electrodes with CdS deposition by CBD first increased and then decreased as deposition time increased, and the greatest short-circuit current (J(vc).) was obtained at the deposition time of 4 min The performance of ZnO/CdS electrodes with CdS deposition by S-CBD increased as deposition cycles increased, and both open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) and J(vc) were greater than those electrodes with CdS deposition by CBD when the deposition cycles of S-CBD were 10 or greater These results indicated that S-CBD is a more suitable method for high performance ZnO/CdS electrodes (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved