The ZnO nanorods have been grown on the cotton threads with ZnO seed layer by an aqueous chemical growth method at the low reaction temperature. The ZnO nanorods can provide a good geometric structure to deposit Pt nanoparticles with uniform size by a facile ion sputtering method. The photo catalytic activity of the different lengths of cotton threads with ZnO nanorods were evaluated in the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine 6G by a 10 W UV light irradiation. The ZnO/Pt core-shell nanorods revealed much higher photodegradation efficiency than ZnO nanorods or commercial TiO2 nanopowders, which improved the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. Furthermore, the reusability test can demonstrated that the ZnO/Pt core-shell nanorods on the cotton threads still maintained high photocatalytic activity over five cycles. The ZnO/Pt core-shell nanorods provide a facile, low cost, high surface-to-volume ratio, high photocatalytic efficiency, and high reusability, which shall be also promising in the decomposition of environment pollutants and reusing of wastewater treatment. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.