Cadmium indium sulphide (CdIn2S4) electrodes have been prepared onto the preheated fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass and stainless steel (SS) substrates at optimized deposition conditions by using spray pyrolysis Influence of substrates on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance has been carried out using cell configuration n-CdIn2S4/1 M (NaOH + Na2S + S)/C for studying the current voltage (I-V), photovoltaic output, photovoltaic rise and decay, photo and spectral responses and capacitance voltage (C-V) characteristics. The junction ideality factor in dark (n(D)) and light (n(L)), series and shunt resistances (R, and R-sh), fill factor (FF) and efficiency (eta) for the cell have been estimated. The measured fill factor (FF) and cell efficiency (eta) of the cells are found to be 0 47%, 0.38%, and 1.06%, 0 38% for FTO and SS substrates respectively The Energy band diagram of band bending has been constructed using the physical parameters estimated from Mott-Schottky plots. Mott Schottky plots shows the flat-band potential ( V-fb) of CdIn2S4 films to be -1.15 V/SCE and -0 90 V/SCE on FTO and SS substrates respectively (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved