In this paper we study nanocrystalline zinc oxide thin films produced by oxidation of electrodeposited zinc nanolayers on a monocrystalline p-Si(1 1 1) substrate. The electrolyte used is ZnCl2, an aqueous solution of 4 x 10(-2) mol/l concentration. Several deposits were made for various current densities, ranging from 13 mA/cm(2) to 44 mA/cm(2), flowing through the solution at room temperature. A parametric study enabled us to assess the effect of the current density on nucleation potential and time as well as zinc films structure. The grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) revealed that both Zn and ZnO films are polycrystalline and nanometric. After 1-h oxidation of zinc films at 450 degrees C in the open air, the structural analyses showed that the obtained ZnO films remained polycrystalline with an average crystal size of about 47 nm and with (1 0 0), (0 0 2) and (1 0 1) as preferential crystallographic orientations. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.