We present the structural, optical, electrochemical, and photocatalytic studies of octadecyl amine capped CdS quantum dots (ODA-CdS). TEM micrographs showed CdS quantum dots with particle sizes of 1.9-5.2 nm. The optical bandgaps of the quantum dots are 2.03, 2.06 and 2.01 eV for ODA-CdS1, ODA-CdS2 and ODA-CdS3 respectively, which was less than the bandgap of the bulk CdS (2.42 eV). Photo-electrochemical band gaps of 2.60 V for ODA-CdS1, 2.24 V for ODA-CdS2 and 2.46 V for ODA-CdS3 were obtained from cyclic voltammetry. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methylene blue was 62% for ODA-CdS1, 80% for ODA-CdS2, 69% for ODA-CdS3.