The work aims to compound zinc coating with antibacterial nanoparticles to modify the zinc coating and prepare a functional composite coating with photocatalytic antibacterial properties. Bismuth sulfide nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal method, which possess high. By adding gradient concentration of bismuth sulfide nanoparticles with antibacterial properties excited by visible light into the zinc sulfate electrolyte, a series of bismuth sulfide-zinc composite coatings were successfully prepared on 20# carbon steel surface through galvanostatic electrodeposition. The deposition potential during the deposition process was monitored by electrochemical workstation. By recording the mass and depositing area before and after deposition, the current efficiency was calculated. The morphology and composition of the coatings were analyzed by SEM, XRD and EDS. Furthermore, E.coli was used as the representative bacteria to evaluate the antibacterial properties of composite coatings. Compared with the pure zinc coating, the addition of bismuth sulfide significantly promoted the crystal growth of the (100) orientation, while suppressing the (102) orientations. The coating morphology altered from the standard hexagonal system to the bulk crystal. With the addition of bismuth sulfide, the potential of the electrodeposition process shifted positively and increased with the increase of bismuth sulfide amount. The addition of bismuth sulfide increased the current efficiency of the electrodeposition process by 5% compared with the current efficiency of pure zinc coating. However, the amount of bismuth sulfide did not influence the current efficiency obviously. Moreover, the bismuth sulfide-zinc composite coating had good bactericidal property against E.coli under visible light, and the more the composite amount of bismuth sulfide was, the better the antibacterial rate was. Bismuth sulfide nanoparticles can be successfully composited into the zinc coatings by the proposed electrodeposition method, thus the bismuth sulfide-zinc composite coating obtains antibacterial properties. When the concentration of bismuth sulfide in the electrolyte is 2 g/L, the composite amount in the coatings is the highest, leading to the most effective antibacterial property.