Double-ended acicular ZnO structure can be synthesized via a hydrothermal process with tetramethylammonium hydroxide and zinc acetate as precursors and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a structure-directing agent. The as-prepared ZnO products show the well crystalline wurtzite structure with growth direction along [0 0 0 1]. For the first time, PVA is found to be employed as a reservoir of Zn2+ ions in the present study, and can control the concentration of Zn2+ in reaction solution, and the acicular morphology can be formed at the two ends of the 1-D ZnO structure, due to the effect of secondary growth that occurs as the sufficient concentration of Zn2+ ions chelated by PVA releasing to the reaction solution. Furthermore, the size of the 1-D ZnO structure can be tuned by different amounts of PVA addition. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.