A novel methodology based on the basic erosion of as-grown ZnO rod films was developed to prepare ZnO nanoplates array and nanowires network films. The different morphology was obtained by adjusting the erosion time with ammonium solution as the erodent. The XRD, TEM and HRTEM analysis showed that the synthesized ZnO nanostructure had a single crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure. The nanoplates formed due to the dissolution of the polar planes of hexagonal rod crystals. The formation process of ZnO nanowire resulted from dissolution-regrowth was illustrated by the aid of TEM and HRTEM characterization, which runs as follows: nanoparticle packing, crystallization and oriented attachment of grain domains, formation of the single crystalline nanowire ultimately. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.