A polyol-mediated synthesis allows the obtaining of doped zinc oxides nanoparticles with tunable infrared absorption properties via the doping concentration. In a first step the prepared nanoparticles are characterized in terms of chemical composition (purity and homogeneity), crystallite size and agglomerate morphology. A correlation law between the infrared absorbing efficiency, the free electron density and the doping concentration is then clearly established; this law is based on the neighboring probability of the dopant ions in the crystal network. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.