Zinc oxide thin films with c-axis orientation on glass and Si(111) substrates were prepared by Sol-gel spin coating technique, which were characterized by DSC/TGA, X-ray diffraction and SEM. DSC/TGA results show that thermal decomposition processes of the precursors are widely different from those of zinc acetate dihydrate, monoethanolamine and 2-methoxyethanol. ZnO thin films grown on Si(111) and glass both show obvious c-axis orientation. The influence of thickness on the structure and surface morphology of ZnO thin films were investigated, the c-axis orientation characteristic of ZnO thin films weaken with the increase of coating layers, the reason are considered that the growth mode of ZnO thin films transformed from layer growth to island growth. The average transmittance of ZnO thin films in the visible range was beyond 85%.