The combustion synthesis technique using glycine and urea as fuels and cobalt nitrate as an oxidizer is capable of producing well-crystallized Co3O4, CoO, as well as metallic Co powders An interpretation based on the thermodynamic viewpoint and the measurement of the combustion temperatures during the reactions occurring for various fuel-to-oxidant ratios was proposed for a study of the nature of combustion and its correlation with the characteristics of as-synthesized powders The largest measured specific surface area of the powders was 36 m(2)/g at a 0.14 glycine-to-nitrate ratio. The crystallites were nano-sized ranging from approximately 23 to 90 nm (C) 2010 Elseviei Ltd All rights reserved