A modified successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process was used for deposition of coupled CdS and CdSe quantum dots (QDs) on the surface of orientated ZnO nanorod arrays. This solution-based process provides a conformal and homogeneous QDs deposition along the ZnO nanorod arrays with no entry clogging. The prepared multiheterojunction CdSe/CdS/ZnO nanorod-arrayed photoanodes are highly visible-lightsensitive and show improved ion diffusion and effective suppression of electron hole pair recombination. For photoeletrochemical solar water splitting, the photoanode prepared using the modified SILAR outperformed that using the conventional SILAR by >15% improvement in solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.