In the present study, wire explosion process (WEP) has been used to produce zirconium nitride (ZrN) nanoparticles. The produced ZrN nanoparticles were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by the selected area electron diffraction (SAED) studies. The size and shape of the particles were analyzed using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). An analysis based on Log-normal probability distribution was used to quantify the particle size distribution of the powder. High speed photography was used to observe the wire explosion process. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.