ZnO films codoped with 5 at.% Co and 1 at.% Al were prepared by sol-gel technique on corning glass and silicon substrates with precursor sols of different pH values. The pH was varied from 5.4 to 11 by adding varying amounts of monoethanolamine to the sol. Since pH plays an important role in controlling the properties of films, we discuss in detail the effect of pH value on the structural, morphological and optical properties of the grown films. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy images reveal that the size of crystallites increases with pH of the sol. The variation of pH in the reaction system influences the density of homogeneous nucleation and the crystal growth along the c-axis. High quality Co and Al codoped ZnO films annealed at 600 degrees C have been obtained using a sol with pH = 9. These sol-gel derived films find their suitability to be used as dilute magnetic semiconductors. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.