ZnO nanowires were catalytically grown on Au-coated silicon substrates by the carbon thermal reduction method.The process involved addition of a low partial pressure of hydrogen sulphide to the argon carrier flow. The addition of H2S led to the higher yield and longer nanowires without any morphology change, and no sulphuric content was observed by the energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy in the resulting nanowires. The nanowires exhibited strong blue-green emission at room temperature and an increasing intensity when the partial pressure of H2S was raised. The temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra show that intensity of the blue-green emission,almost without shift, decreases slowly with increasing temperature. Heat treatments indicated that quenching resulted in a higher ratio of blue-green emission to ultraviolet emission.