ZnO hexagonal prisms have been successfully synthesized in large scale by microemulsion method with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) used as surfactant to form the template for the growth of ZnO and passivant for the modification of ZnO prisms surface, simultaneously. The as-prepared prisms show high crystal quality and Raman spectra indicate that the ZnO prisms are in wurtzite phase. In the presence of adsorbed PVP, the ZnO hexagonal prisms show an intensive near-band-edge emission. Our protocol provides an effective method to synthesize ZnO nanomaterials with perfect morphology, pure crystal quality and intensive U-V emission. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.