Zinc(II) oxide nanoparticles are synthesized by the thermolysis of [Zn(6,6-dimethyl2,2-bipy)Cl2]n (1) and [Zn(6,6-dimethyl-2,2-bipy)I2]n (2) at two different temperatures. <...> The ZnO nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). <...> SEM images show the average size of the ZnO nanoparticles produced of 50 nm and 60 nm in compounds 1 and 2 respectively. <...> INTRODUCTION ZnO is polar inorganic crystalline material with many applications due to its interesting properties such as nontoxicity, good electrical, optical and piezoelectric behavior, stability in a hydrogen plasma atmosphere and low price [ 1—10]. <...> ZnO is a well-known semiconductor with a wide direct band gap (3.37 eV), a large excitation binding energy of 60 meV at room temperature [ 4, 5 ] and a wide range of applications such as solar cells, luminescent, electrical and acoustic devices, gas and chemical sensors, coatings, catalysts, micro lasers, memory arrays and biomedical applications [ 6 ]. <...> Many methods have already been developed to synthesize zinc(II) oxide and sulfide nanocrystals such as vapor phase growth [ 7 ], vapor liquid-solid process [ 2 ], soft chemical method [9 ], electrophoretic deposition [ 10 ], sol-gel process [ 11, 12 ], homogeneous precipitation [ 13 ], etc. <...> The use of supramolecular compounds as precursors for the preparation of inorganic nanomaterials such as zinc(II) oxide has not yet been investigated thoroughly. <...> In this paper we describe a simple method for preparing nanoparticles of ZnO with the use of [Zn(6,6-dimethyl-2,2-bipy)Cl2]n (1) and [Zn(6,6-dimethyl-2,2-bipy)I2]n (2) as precursors. <...> X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed using a Philips Xpert diffractometer with monochromated CuKh radiation (y = 1.54056 Е), a step size of 0.05 degrees and a counting time of 5 s per step. <...> The samples were characterized with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) (Philips XL 30) with gold coating. <...> According to the reported method [ 15 ], for the preparation of compound [Zn(6,6-dimethyl-2,2-bipy)I2]n (2), a solution of 6,6 <...>