Abstract: ZnO nanorods were directly prepared by a microwave-assisted solution process with cetyltrim-ethylammonium bromide（CTAB）and Zinc nitrate at 90℃for 30 mins.The results obtained from thermogravimetry -differential thermal analysis（TG-DTA）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）show that the as-prepared samples are hexagonal wurtzite ZnO with diameters ranging from 100 to 800 nm and length of 2-3μm.The gas sensing properties of pure ZnO and Pd-modified ZnO nanorods were also investigated by mixing a gas in air at static state.The results indicate that ZnO nanorods has a higher sensitivity to 50μL·L^-1H₂S,and Pd modification can obviously improve their sensitivity and selectivity to H₂S at rather low temperature.So ZnO nanorods modified with Pd is a kind of promising H₂S gas sensing materials.