Chemical and gas sensing property tuning of cadmium sulfide thin films

•The CBD technique was used to synthesize and alter chemical compositions of CdS thin films.•The Cd contents increase with the rise in the CBD deposition period, which affect the composition of CdS thin films and induces defects in the film.•The prolonged deposition time produce a huge CdS micro-balls like morphology.•Such CdS films showed low-temperature gas sensing behavior to NO2 gas with an encouraging outcomes.