Spray pyrolysis was used for the deposition of well defined submicronic to nanosize particles based on ZnO. The influence of the temperature in the range from 345 to 1165 K, solution concentration (0.004 and 1.5 mol dm(-3)) and the residence time on the particle morphology is discussed. X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy were used in particle characterization. With the presumption that certain particle morphology is formed during the evaporation/drying stage of spray pyrolysis, the corresponding mathematical model for droplets evaporation is developed and correlated with the empirical results.