Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanorods in the diameter regime of 50 nm.

We report a novel wet-chemical approach at 180 degrees C for the synthesis of monodispersed ZnO nanorods with high single-crystallinity. The method has successfully brought the ZnO nanorod diameter from a reported 150 nm down to the 50 nm regime in this work. The aspect ratio of the synthesized nanorods achieved is exceptionally high (in the range of 30-40). This simple low-cost approach should promise us a future large-scale synthesis of ZnO nanostructures for many important applications in nanotechnology in a controlled manner.