We produced ZnO nanoparticles by high current electrical arc discharge of zinc electrodes in deionized (DI) water. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows formation of crystalline ZnO phase with hexagonal structure and 14 nm single crystalline domain size Dynamic light scattering (DLS) result indicates that at 5A arc current, the size of the particles is about 100 nm and increases by increasing the arc current Absorption spectroscopy of the samples obtained at different arc currents shows an absorption edge on 370 nm which has a red shift by increasing the arc current. Band gap of the produced ZnO nanoparticles at 5 A arc current corresponds to 3.8 eV which decreases to 3.3 eV by increasing the arc current up to 15 A. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the sample showed a strong ultraviolet (UV) emission peak around 383 nm, corresponding to the ZnO nanoparticles. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved