Large area arrays of highly oriented sulfur (S2-) doped ZnO nanorods are grown on silica glass substrate by wet chemical decomposition of zinc-thiourea precursor in an aqueous medium. A series of five samples were synthesized by varying the concentrtaions of sulfur ions in solution. The synthesized materials were studied by using XRD, SEM, AFM, UV-ViS spectroscopy and photoluminescence techniques. Microscopy studies reveal the formation of conical nanorods having length ∼3.0μm with tip size ∼ 50nm. XRD studies of these nanorods show formation of hexagonal phase of pure ZnO with c-axis preferred orientation. Reduction in band gap energy from 3.2 to 2.9 eV was observed from optical absorption studies when different mole concentrations of thourea was varied in the precursor solution. The photoluminiscence efficiency of the materials was found to decrease with increase in the concentartion of sulfur ions in ZnO nanorods. © (2009) Trans Tech Publications.