Hafnium oxide nanoparticles (HfO2 NPs) have been successfully synthesized by means of a novel precipitation method and were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV-visible, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and laser Raman spectroscopy. The XRD and Raman analysis revealed the presence of pure monoclinic HfO2 NPs. FESEM image showed that the HfO2 NPs were of spherical shape with an average particle size of about 20 nm. The optical band gap of the HfO2 NPs was found to be 6.12 eV. Advantages of this method were simple and low cost of synthesis of HfO2 NPs includes the small and narrow particle size distribution. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.