The metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) of thin zinc oxide films on borosilicate glass and silicon substrates in a hot-wall CVD-reactor (HWR) was studied. Zinc acetylacetonate (Zn(acac)(2)) and air were used as precursors. The aim of this work was to optimize the deposition parameters, such as pressure and deposition temperature, with respect to the film quality, structure, and homogeneity. Most experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure; this approach avoids the usage of an expensive vacuum system. It turned out that polycrystalline zinc oxide is grown at deposition temperatures above 613 K. Above 823 K, they additionally are c-axis orientated. At atmospheric pressure and lower temperature (<773 K) the film deposition is homogeneously over the whole tube furnace while at higher temperature inhomogeneous film growth and particle formation are observed, indicating a shift of the growth mechanism to the diffusion controlled regime. Although the homogeneity is improved by using higher flow velocities at atmospheric pressure, particle growth cannot be suppressed. Only at reduced pressure, which was 200 mbar in the present case, the deposition at 823 K is kinetically controlled and without particle formation, resulting in the homogeneous growth of well adhering ZnO films with c-axis orientation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.