Cadmium sulfide, the mineral Greenockite, is an hexagonal, orange crystal with specific gravity of 4.7 and Mohs hardness of 3.8.

Synthetic Cadmium pigments based on Cadmium sulfide are valued for their good thermal stability in many polymers, for example in engineering plastics. By adding selenium in its formula it´s possible to obtain colors ranging from a greenish yellow to red violet pigment. The weather resistance for this pigment is 8 in full tone, what means that it is a good pigment for UV.

Cadmium sulfide has useful properties for optoelectronics, being used in both photosensitive and photovoltaic devices.