The ZnO nano-tetrapods have been prepared by the evaporation of metallic Zn powder at the temperature range of 700oC- 950oC in air. The influence of experimental conditions, such as the evaporation temperature and the substrate temperature, on the morphology, the size and the photoluminescence (PL) was investigated. The XRD pattern showed that the nano–tetrapods were ZnO with hexagonal structure. The branch size of the tetrapods was about two hundreds nanometers.