Zinc aluminate spinel nanoparticles with different concentrations of alumina (x50?000, 0?005, 0?010, 0?015 and 0?020) are synthesised by solid state reaction method. The synthesised products are characterised by powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared, UV-visible spectroscopy. The prepared nanoparticles exhibit a cubic structure with average crystallite size 68?3, 48?1, 58?3, 45?2 and 51?4 nm respectively. Optical measurements indicated a slight shift in the absorption band edge by increasing the alumina doping concentration. The band gap values of zinc aluminate spinel nanoparticles are found to increase with increase in alumina concentration (x50?000, 0?005, 0?010, 0?015 and 0?020). The photocatalytic activity of zinc aluminate spinel nanoparticles is studied by performing the decomposition of methylene blue dye under UV light irradiation. The dye considerably photocatalytically degraded by 90?0% under UV light irradiation within 5 h with pseudo first order rate constant of 0?3067 min 21 .