Various kind of ZnO nanostructures such as nanowires, nanonails and nanocombs were synthesized by the thermal evaporation process onto the steel alloy substrate without the use of metal catalyst or any additives. Detailed structural characterizations indicated that the grown products possess a single crystallinity with the wurtzite hexagonal crystal structure. Presence of strong optical-phonon E-2 mode, in all the cases, presents the good crystallinity with the wurtzite hexagonal phase for the deposited products. Additionally, appearance of dominated, strong and sharp UV emission in the room-temperature photoluminescence spectra confirmed the good optical properties for the grown nanostructures. A vapor-solid growth mechanism has been proposed for the growth of the nanostructures. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.