Via a simple aqua-solution hydrothermal route, uniform ZnS nanorod arrays were fabricated upon pulse-plating Zn nanocrystallines. Particularly, low temperature (95 degrees C) and short time (1 h) were employed in the hydrothermal reaction. ZnS nanorods were found to be grown along certain Zn crystalline direction. Control experiments which were performed by replacing Zn nanocrystallines with Zn plate found no one-dimensional ZnS nanostructure on the substrate. Therefore, it was proposed that pulse-plating Zn nanocrystallines acted as both reactant and seed during the hydrothermal process. ZnS nanorod arrays could be theoretically fabricated on almost any raw base plate as long as Zn nanocrystallines could be pulse-plated on the plate. The ZnS nanorod arrays with high length-to-diameter ratio were expected to be a potential candidate for future field-emission devices. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.