Nickel-substituted zinc manganite compositions Zn1-xNixMnO3 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4. 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) with perovskite structure were prepared by co-precipitation precursor method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectroscopy, surface area measurement and thermal techniques. These compounds were tested for the model catalytic reaction of carbon monoxide oxidation. Attempts were made to correlate the solid state and spectroscopic studies of the compositions with their catalytic activities. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.