The photoluminescen ce spectra of Co 2+ doped ZnO nanopowder is recorded at room temperature under the photon excitation of 285 nm. Three bands are observ ed. At first, a strong ultra violet (UV) near band edge (NBE) emission centered at 386 nm, second, a weak blue emission band centered at 468 nm. The strong UV band is assigned to the occurrence of free excitons recombination through an exciton–exciton collision process. The CIE chromaticity coordinates are also calculated from the emission spectrum (shown in Fig. 5) x = 0.136, y = 0.068. Compared with the NTSC standa rd CIE chromaticity coordinate values for blue (x = 0.14, y = 0.07) it is found that the CIE chromaticity coordinates of ZnO: Co 2+ is close to the NTSC standard values. This material can be used as LEDs and lamps.