Cadmium selenide has been deposited on nanoparticulate titania films by one-step dynamic electrode-position in aqueous environment using cadmium sulfate and selenium oxide mixtures as precursors. The molar concentration of cadmium sulfate was always 100 times higher than SeO2. Amorphous CdSe films have been obtained and they were characterized by several spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Nanoparticulate titania films supported on transparent FTO electrodes, sensitized by the deposited CdSe, were employed as photoanode in photoelectrochemical cells using Cu2S/brass-foil as counter electrode. The applicability of the sensitized photoanode was tested for the production of hydrogen by water reduction under basic conditions, using a standard mixture of sodium sulfide and sodium sulfite as sacrificial agent. The present work shows that a functional cell can be easily obtained using non-sophisticated procedures that provide conditions for upscaling. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.