Chemically pure, stoichiometric cadmium sulphide (CdS) films were produced by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method on suitably cleaned silicon (Si) wafer and indium-tin oxide (ITO) substrates at room temperature. The nanocrystalline film was found to be hexagonal in structure with the preferential orientation along the (002) plane. Variable-range hopping conduction through 66nm thick CdS films on ITO substrates was found to be responsible at the low voltage while space charge-limited conduction became dominant at a relatively high bias voltage. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.