Abstract: zinc oxide nanorods had been successfully prepared by hydrothermal synthesis on glass substrates.X-ray diffraction（XRD） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM） were used to characterize the ZnO nanorods.SEM imagines indicated that ZnO hexagonal nanorods grew along c axis on glass substrates and growth mechanism of ZnO nanorods was discussed.Photoluminescence spectra and analyse luminescence mechanism of ZnO nanorods were measured.The result showed that luminescent intensity of ZnO nanorods enhanced with hydrothermal temperature while luminescent intensity of ZnO nanorods enhanced with the reaction time prolong,in 1～3h,but became weak in 3～10h.