Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanopowder was synthesized by a simple and quick combustion method using zinc nitrate as a precursor and glycine as a fuel material. The starting materials were mixed at room temperature and spontaneous ignition of which resulted into the ZnO nanopowder. The synthesized nanopowder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), Infrared (IR) spectrophotometer and spectroflurometer in order to study the structural, morphological, compositional and photoluminescence (PL) properties. The ZnO powder shows polycrystalline nature with preferential peak (101) having crystallite size 25 nm. A significant band at 532 cm(-1) in the IR spectrum corroborates the presence of characteristic band of ZnO. Room temperature photoluminescence spectrum of the synthesized nanopowder exhibits a dominant, sharp and strong ultraviolet (UV) emission with a suppressed deep-level emission indicating good crystal quality and optical properties. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.