The dimethylzinc adduct [Me2Zn(1,4-dioxane)] has been used for the growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires by liquid injection MOCVD. The ZnO nanowires were deposited at temperatures of 450 and 500 degrees C on Si(1 1 1) and F-doped SnO2/glass substrates and XRD data showed that the ZnO nanowires were deposited in the wurtzitic phase. Room temperature PL data for the nanowires showed that they are of high crystalline quality with intense near band-edge emission at 3.28 eV and a very low intensity of defect-related green luminescence at 2.42 eV. Single crystal XRD data showed that the [Me2Zn (1.4-dioxane)] adduct is polymeric with repeating [Me2Zn] units bridged by monodentate 1,4-dioxane ligands. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.