SnS is a promising candidate for a low-cost, non-toxic solar cell absorber layer. Tin sulphide thin films have been deposited by chemical bath deposition technique from a solution containing stannous chloride, thioacetamide, ammonia and triethanolamine (TEA). The effects of concentration of tin salt, triethanolamine and bath temperature on the growth of tin sulphide films have been investigated in order to optimize the growth conditions to obtain tin monosulphide (SnS) films. SnS films obtained under optimized conditions were found to be polycrystalline in nature with orthorhombic structure. The optical band gap of these films was found to be 1.5 eV. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.