Temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties of C(carbon)-aided ZnO nanorod arrays on (1 0 0) Si substrate

•A carbon-assisted process avoids undesired contamination from foreign metal atoms.•A carbon-assisted process facilitate the nucleation of ZnO nuclei.•A large exciton binding energy (65.8 meV) was found for the carbon assisted ZnO nanorod.•Stable high-yield luminescence from the carbon assisted ZnO nanorod arrays at 300 K.•Weak exciton-phonon coupling of the carbon-assisted ZnO nanorod arrays.