ZnO nanorods with uniform diameter and length have been synthesized on an indium-tin oxide (ITO) substrate by using a simple thermal evaporation method which is suitable to larger scale production and without any catalyst or additives. The samples were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet-vis (UV-vis) absorption spectrum, photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and Raman spectrum. The single-phase ZnO nanorods grow well-oriented along the c-axis of its wurtzite structure on ITO substrate. The ZnO nanorods shows sharp and strong UV emission located at 380 nm without notable visible light emission in the PL spectrum, which suggests the good crystallinity of the nanorods, which was also testified by their Raman spectrum. The photodegradation of methylene orange (MO) in aqueous solution reveals that the well-arranged c-axis growth of ZnO nanorods possess evidently improved photocatalytic performance and these properties enable the ZnO nanorods potential application in UV laser. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.