Characteristics of self-propagating reaction for the preparation of ZnO powder from precursors composed of nitrate and citrate compounds were examined. The ratio of C/N was maintained in range of 0.7~0.8 to initiate the selfpropagating reaction between the reducing citrate and oxidizing nitrate groups. The samples were decomposed thermally by using TGA. The sudden decomposition occurred in the range of X > 0.5 in a very short time with a very sharp decrease of mass, indicating that the self-propagating reaction would occur. Friedman, Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and Vyazovkin methods were employed to predict the activation energy, reaction order and frequency factor of the reaction rate in the rate determining step of X < 0.5 range. The activation energy increased with increasing fractional conversion in the range of 46~130 (kJ/min). The reaction order decreased in the range of 2.9~0.9, while the frequency factor increased in the range of 85~278 (min-1), respectively, with increasing the rate of temperature increase.