Vertically oriented single-crystalline one-dimensional TiO2 nanorod arrays was synthesized directly on transparent fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conducting glass substrate by a facile hydrothermal method and was applied as photoanode in CdSe/Mn-doped CdS quantum dots sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). The effect of coating cycles of QDs on the photovoltaic performance was investigated to find the optimal combination is 10 cycles of Mn-doped CdS and 9 cycles of CdSe, the CdSe(9)/Mn-CdS(10)/TiO2 solar cell exhibited the best performance due to the complementary effect in the light absorption of Mn-doped CdS and CdSe QDs. The power conversion efficiency of CdSe(9)/Mn-CdS(10)/TiO2 solar cell reached to 2.40% under one sun illumination (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW/cm(2)), which was 46.34% higher than that of CdSe(9)/CdS(10)/TiO2 solar cell without doping of Mn (1.64%). (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.