The synthesis of silicon nanopowders by an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) process is investigated. The specific surface area (SSA) of the elaborated particles is determined by nitrogen absorption (BET) as a function of the quenching gas flow rate and the precursor feeding rate. Nanopowders with specific surface areas varying from 69 to 194 m(2) g(-1), corresponding to equivalent particle sizes of 37 and 13 nm respectively, could be produced. The correlation between these two input parameters and the output SSA has been numerically modelled with linear regression and artificial neural networks approaches. It has been demonstrated that with the available data set, a regression model with quadratic regressors and a neural network modelling give a similar response. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.