ZnO nanowire growth by electric current heating method: A study on the effect of substrate temperature

► A simple approach called electric current heating for the growth of ZnO nanostructures on quartz glass substrates is presented. ► The aligned ZnO nanowires (diameters of 20-100 nm and lengths of 4-20 μm) were attained for the substrate temperature of 800 °C. ► ZnO nanowires were vertically originated from the substrate surface, which is corroborated by our XRD findings from the c-axis oriented peak. ► The optical reflectance property of ZnO nanostructures were studied for the first time. ► The higher optical reflectance was observed in the infrared region for the ZnO nanowires grown at 800 °C.