Semiconducting films of (n-type) ZnSe and (p-type) nitrogen-doped ZnSe were electrodeposited by a linear-sweep voltammetric technique on to a substrate of fluorine–tin oxide (FTO) glass ceramics. The films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction. The results indicated that the material was deposited uniformly over the substrate, forming clusters when the Zn content of the bath was 0.1 mol L −1 and a film when it was 0.2 or 0.3 mol L −1. The effectiveness of doping the films with nitrogen by adding ammonium sulfate to the deposition solution was assessed by measuring the film–electrolyte interface capacitance ( C) at various applied potentials ( E ap) and plotting Mott–Schottky curves ( C −2 vs E ap), whose slope sign was used to identify p-type ZnSe.