Photovoltaic performance of the hybrid devices consisting of P3HT/CdS/CdSe/TiO2 nanorod array was studied. The dependence of the photovoltaic performance on the CdS/CdSe quantum dots was investigated, and it is concluded that the CdS/CdSe quantum dots play an important role in improving charge separation and injection. It has been demonstrated that coating CdS/CdSe quantum dots onto TiO2 nanorods with P3HT to form p-n heterojunctions largely improves the photovoltaic performance of the P3HT/CdSe/CdS/TiO2 nanorod solar cells, exhibiting an energy conversion efficiency of 0.57%. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.