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ZnO has received lots of attention in recent years because of its unique properties, rendering it a good candidate material for various industrial applications. Amongst the methods used for synthesizing ZnO structures, hydrothermal technique offers a simple, cost-effective and yet environment friendly synthesis route for the materials. To investigate the effect of substrate on the formation of hydrothermally grown ZnO, several types of substrates were used and the structures of the ZnO were systematically studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It was demonstrated that the type of substrates used had a great influence on the morphologies, density and alignment of the ZnO formed. Pre-coated substrate with Au yielded highly aligned ZnO nanorod arrays compared to bare Si and Al substrates. Possible mechanisms for the variation of morphology obtained are discussed.