Novel field emitters with alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites were simply prepared by dipping the iron into the oxalic acid solution, drop-coating CNTs to the iron substrate followed by in situ thermal oxidation. The surface morphology of the products has been characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). And further the composition was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of SEM, XRD and XPS showed that CNTs have been homogenously dispersed and partly wrapped on alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods. alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites had exhibited greatly enhanced field emission properties with low turn-on field (about 1.211 V/mu m), and high field enhancement factor of 8658. Therefore, the alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods/CNTs composites are promising field emitters for field emission applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.