Large-area Si/ZnO core/shell nanowire (NW) arrays have been fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching and sol-gel processes. We demonstrated the dependence of photocurrent density on the annealing temperature of the Si/ZnO NW arrays. The core/shell NW arrays annealed at 900 degrees C enhanced the photocurrent by 2.4 times compared to the samples annealed at 500 degrees C due to the core/shell array annealed at higher temperature have lower defect density. We also observed that n-Si/n-ZnO NW arrays exhibited a larger photocurrent than p-Si/n-ZnO NW arrays due to n/n junctions enhance the charge separation and minimize recombination. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.