Cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots are integrated with mesoporous titanium dioxide “TiO2” electrode using an in-situ sensitization approach for the first time, where water soluble N-Acetyl Cysteine capped CdTe quantum dots (diameter 4–5 nm) are grown hydrothermally inside mesoporous TiO2 electrode matrix. This in-situ sensitization approach has shown the effective sensitization over the conventional reported sensitization processes. The in-situ CdTe sensitized TiO2 electrodes are further unified with PbS counter electrode to realize the quantum dot sensitized solar cell (QDSSC). The fabricated CdTe QDSSC has shown the optimal short circuit current density 3.35 ± 0.21 mA/cm2 and open circuit voltage 0.58 ± 0.01 V. The observed current density is the highest among such cell configurations, reported till date. The in-situ sensitized CdTe QDs are further treated with zinc sulfide for surface passivation to realize the reduced back recombination, if any. These ZnS passivated CdTe QDs sensitized solar cells in similar device configurations resulted into the significant reduction in the short circuit current density (20%) with the minimal change in open circuit voltage (5%). The impedance spectroscopy measurements suggest that the transmission resistance “Rtr” has increased after ZnS treatment for these electrodes, however, the recombination resistance Rrec has not changed much. The observed high Rtr might be responsible for the observed current deterioration after ZnS surface passivation. These studies suggest that in-situ QD sensitization may provide a new method of integrating QDs into mesoporous TiO2 matrix for effective QDSSC device performance without any additional surface passivation. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd