An ammonia-free chemical-bath deposition was used to obtain CdSe thin films on glass substrate. The materials used in the chemical bath were cadmium chloride complexed with sodium citrate and sodium selenosulphate. The preparation conditions, especially the starting solution characteristics, such as concentration of dissolved materials, temperature, pH value as well as deposition time and immersion cycles were optimized to obtain homogeneous stoichiometric films with good adherence to the glass substrate. The films thickness was in the range of 400-500 nm with a growing time of 4h. The material obtained was characterized by optical absorption, SEM with the energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) and X-ray diffraction. The films obtained at bath temperatures of 70 and 80 degrees C had the hexagonal structure (of wurtzite type), with crystallite size of about 20 nm. Room temperature deposition results in films with the cubic structure and crystallite size of about 4 nm. From optical transmission data, an energy gap equal to 1.88 eV was found. The material is interesting for applications in hybrid systems for solar energy conversion. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.