The gas-phase growth and optical characteristics of 1-dimensional ZnO nanostructure have been investigated. The ZnO nanowires (NWs) were grown vertically on Au coated silicon substrates by vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The ZnO NWs were grown in the crystal direction of [0 0 0 1]. The ZnO NWs exhibit the uniform size of less than 100nm in diameter and up to 5 mu m in length. Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of ZnO NWs shows the strong band-edge emission at similar to 380nm (similar to 3.27 eV) without significant deep-level defect emission. The exciton lifetime of ZnO NWs was measured to be approximately 150 +/- 10 ps. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.