Well dispersed nickel oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized successfully by direct calcination of nickel linoleate. The structure, morphology and properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning elect-on microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopic studies show that nickel oxide nanoparticles are uniform with an average size of 14-20 nm. The optical band gap of 3.8 eV is obtained using UV-Visible spectroscopy which exhibits the red shift compared with the bulk counterpart. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.