<p>Ethanol oxidation reactions (EOR) using cost-effective electrocatalysts are crucial in fuel cell development. This study aims to investigate using ZnO nanorods/ITO as electrocatalysts in an alkaline medium. ZnO nanorods were electrodeposited on an ITO glass substrate from an aqueous solution containing different concentrations of ZnCl₂ at -1&#xa0;V vs. SCE and 70&#xa0;°C. X-ray diffraction shows that the thin films exhibit a good crystalline quality with a Wurtzite hexagonal structure and have a (002) preferential orientation along the c-axis. Furthermore, the SEM images show a formation of hexagonal nanorods with uniform distribution on the ITO surface. Moreover, the effect of zinc chloride concentration on the diameter was measured and varied from 150 to 322&#xa0;nm. In addition, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed to study the charge transfer of the ZnO nanorods/electrolyte interface. The Mott-Schottky analysis has shown that the present materials are n-type semiconductors with a donor carrier density varied from 10.5 × 10²⁰ to 2.33 × 10²⁰ cm^− 3. The optical band gap value decreased from 3.45&#xa0;eV to 3.00&#xa0;eV as the zinc concentration increased. The EOR on ZN electrodes was carried out in 0.5&#xa0;M NaOH solution at room temperature using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques. Furthermore, the current study proved that electrodeposited ZnO nanorods could be a promising electrocatalyst electrode for ethanol oxidation and its applications.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>