Gelatine has been employed to modify the growth of ZnO in a chemical bath deposition (CBD). The polymer profoundly affects crystal growth and leads to films of high-density which are composed of vertically aligned hexagonal ZnO microplatelets. This morphology is in stark contrast to the [0 0 0 1] orientated rods most often seen in CBD. These crysatllites are well defined, relatively uniform in diameter, thickness and shape. The height of the ZnO platelet in the film is similar to 2.0 mu m (as is the measured film thickness). The films present near perfect linear current-voltage (I-V) curves and have a very characteristic Raman resonance. Near band-edge emssion is observed in the low temperature photoluminescence (PL). Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.