A thiocyanate functionalized ionic liquid based electrolyte is developed for the application in CdSe thin film solar cell. An aqueous solvent consisting of polysulfide and thiocyanate functionalized IL has been found as the optimum solvent for preparing the liquid electrolytes. This solvent ratio appears to give higher cell efficiency compared to pure aqueous polysulfide electrolyte. Polysulfide and thiocyanate functionalized IL give rise to a good redox couple in the electrolyte for photoelectrochemical performance. The CdSe photoanode used for solar cell study has been synthesized by a simple and cost-effective one-step, one-pot chemical bath deposition method onto the F: SnO2 substrates. The as-deposited films were annealed at temperatures 100, 200, 300 and 400 degrees C, respectively for 1 h in ambient air. The maximum current density of 3.55 mA/cm(2) for the sample annealed at 300 degrees C is observed in the polysulfide electrolyte with the power conversion efficiency 0.76%. Addition of thiocyanate functionalized IL in polysulfide produced the highest current density of 4.93 mA/cm(2) with the two fold increase in the power conversion efficiency up to 1.32%. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.