Catalytic growth of US have been carried out on large scale by evaporation of bulk US on Ag deposited Si (I 1 1) at atmospheric pressure. The as prepared US had wurtzite structure as evidenced by X-ray diffraction. The nanostructures were beltlike with several tens of micrometers length, several micrometers width and few nanometers to tens of nanometers thick as seen by scanning electron microscope and confirmed by TEM studies. The nanobelts were single crystalline in nature and showed reflection corresponding to (1 12) and (0 0 2) planes in SAED. The PL studies revealed the green band due to band gap emission and red band due to emission from the surface states. The higher intensity of the defect emission indicated the presence of considerable concentration of surface defects in the as prepared sample. The deposition of US could be explained on the basis of catalyst assisted vapor-liquid-solid and. vapor-solid mechanism. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.