Abstract In this research, the authors present a simple and surfactant free procedure for the synthesis of spherical lead sulphide (PbS) micro and nano particles. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the crystal structure of PbS nanocrystals (NCs) was in its cubic phase. Also, the average crystallite size using Scherrer's formula was ∼13 nm and the calculated lattice constant using Bragg's equation was 0·5950 nm, which was very close to the value in the standard card (JCPDS Card File No. 5-592). In addition, the samples were characterised by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray analyser (EDX), photoluminescence (PL) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The SEM and TEM images revealed that the synthesised particles had a well defined spherical morphology. Finally, the PL study showed that the emission spectrum was a strong and narrow band with high intensity centred at 655 nm which confirmed the high quality luminescence properties of the synthesised PbS NCs.