•A mixture of PVP and citric acid was utilized as fuel for solution combustion of ZnO powders.•Honeycomb-like structure with the thickness of 48 nm was obtained at φ = 0.5.•Specific surface area increased from 19 to 141 m2/g by an addition in fuel content.•ZnO powders prepared at φ = 1 exhibits good photodegradation of MB, Rh B, and MO under ultraviolet light irradiation. Single phase zinc oxide (ZnO) powders were obtained via solution combustion method using various amounts of mixture of polyvinylpyrrolidone and citric acid as fuel. The powders had honeycomb-like structure which transformed to spongy structure accompanied by the increase of specific surface area from 19 to 141 m2/g with the increase of fuel content. The methylene blue, methyl orange and rhodamine B dyes were photodegraded in the presence of ZnO powders under ultraviolet irradiation. The highest photodegradation (94%) was obtained for methylene blue by ZnO powders prepared at fuel to oxidant ratio of 1. However, the photodegradation decreased to 52 and 88% for methyl orange and rhodamine B dyes, respectively.