Zinc oxide in nanometric dimensions, thanks to its optical properties, is an oxide of great interest for its potential use as a revealing agent for latent fingerprints. In this article we present the synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanoparticles obtained by two methods and it uses in revealing of latent fingerprints on non-porous surfaces. The nanoparticles synthetized present an atomic Zn:O ratio of 0.99 and 1.15 when precipitation and combustion in solution method were used, respectively. Both samples show a hexagonal arrangement (wurtzite) according to the X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra. Raman results show a shift at 439 cm−1 corresponding to the E2 (high) mode of the ZnO crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure. Transmission electron microscopy images show that nanoparticles with smaller average diameters are obtained by chemical precipitation (17.2 ± 10.8 nm) than ...