Nano ZnO synthesized with and without surfactant adopting Solid State Reaction (SSR) method, the later at four different temperatures and by Aqueous Chemical Method (ACM) is reported. CdO synthesized by ACM is also presented. The ZnO nanorods by SSR with surfactant are of hexagonal shape with diameter between 20–30 nm and lengths of about 350–500 nm, while that without surfactant does not exhibit rod like morphology. The particle size increases from 35 to 59 nm with temperature in the range 500 to 800°C. ACM resulted in a particle size of 15–35 nm whose SEM shows the nanoparticles forming flakes. Optical properties are studied. A blue shift is observed where the band gap increases from 3.37 (bulk) to 3.62 eV. The increase in band gap is due to quantum confinement effect. CdO synthesized by ACM was of size 30–70 nm. The XRD pattern of CdO reveals NaCl structure.