The effect of catechol as chelating agent is used to study the structures and photoluminescence of ZnO one dimensional rod like materials by hydrothermal methods. We find that the morphologies and length to diameter ratio are depended on the concentration of catechol. The XRD test show that the crystallization degree of ZnO one dimensional rod like materials increases remarkably with the addition of catechol. By increasing the amount of catechol, the ZnO crystal exhibits preferential growth along (100) direction. When the amount of catechol reaches 1g/L, the crystalline degree of ZnO crystal shows the highest degree of crystallization. In addition, the photoluminescence test shows that ZnO one dimensional rod like materials exhibits strong photoluminescence enhancement around UV-vis spectroscopy. In combination with morphology and phase analysis, the influences of the crystallization and surface defects of ZnO materials on the photoluminescence enhancement are revealed. This work reveals the chelating effect of catechol on the growth of ZnO materials and improves the photoluminescence properties of ZnO by modulating the quantity of catechol.
