The surface composition of as-grown and annealed ZnO nanorods arrays (ZNAs) grown by a two-step chemical bath deposition method has been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS confirms the presence of OH bonds and specific chemisorbed oxygen on the surface of ZNAs, as well as H bonds on (1 0 (1) over bar 0) surfaces which has been first time observed in the XPS spectra. The experimental results indicated that the OH and H bonds play the dominant role in facilitating surface recombination but specific chemisorbed oxygen also likely affect the surface recombination. Annealing can largely remove the OH and H bonds and transform the composition of the other chemisorbed oxygen at the surface to more closely resemble that of high temperature grown ZNAs, all of which suppresses surface recombination according to time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.