In nanotechnology, nanorods are one morphology of nanoscale objects. Each of their dimensions range from 1–100 nm. They may be synthesized from metals or semiconducting materials. Standard aspect ratios (length divided by width) are 3-5. Nanorods are produced by direct chemical synthesis. A combination of ligands act as shape control agents and bond to different facets of the nanorod with different strengths. This allows different faces of the nanorod to grow at different rates, producing an elongated object.
The applications of nanorods are diverse, ranging from display technologies (the reflectivity of the rods can be changed by changing their orientation with an applied electric field) to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
Nanorods based on semiconducting materials have also been investigated for application as energy harvesting and light emitting devices. In 2006, Ramanathan et. al. demonstrated1 electric-field mediated tunable photoluminescence from ZnO nanorods, with potential for application as novel sources of near-ultraviolet radiation.