Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) thin films have been proved to be important materials for thermoelectric application. Rapid development of photovoltaic materials has raised new hopes due to directly converting sun light to electricity. We report here a simple electrochemical synthesis route for the preparation of well-defined Bi2Te3 nano-structures for photoelectrochemical solar cell application. Classification of crystal structure, surface morphology and elemental composition of resulting deposits were methodically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and its photoelectrochemical performance (PEC). The potential range and electrochemical reactions relevant to the growth of Bi2Te3 thin films were studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Furthermore, the influence of deposition variables such as applied deposition potential and effect of different surfactants (cationic, anionic and non-ionic) on morphology, crystal orientation associated with the film growth and photoelectrochemical performance were investigated systematically. The photoelectrochemical conversion efficiency recorded for Bi2Te3 is 0.083%. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.