Nanostructured zinc oxide is a material of increasing interest for both scientific and industrial fields due to its large spectrum of properties due to both quantum confining effects (such as giant magnetoresistance, luminescence and photoluminescence, UV – VIS light transmission) or very high surface to bulk ratio (chemical activity, photo catalysis, etc). Consequently important improvements may be achieved using nanomaterials and nanotechnologies in the production of materials for spintronics applications. The paper presents the state of the art in the synthesis of OD, 1D and 2D ZnO nanomaterials doped with different main and transition elements and a SWOT analysis for the procedures used for their production. Original results in the synthesis of Al, Co and Mn-doped ZnO nanomaterials are finally presented. The doped ZnO nanopowders were synthesised by a controlled nucleation process under high pressures in aqueous solutions. Electrochemical deposition was used for growing doped ZnO thin films on metallic substrates. Instrumental chemical analysis, XRD, BET surface area and RES have been used to explain the correlation between dopants nature and concentration and materials microstructure. The results are compared with the thermodynamic prediction using a special thermodynamic software.

Acknowledgement: Research supported by contract CEEX 69/2006 SINAPS and COST Action D 30.