In this paper, the effect of synthesis parameters including temperature, pressure and volume of the synthesis solution towards the formation of ZIF-8 under microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis was investigated. The resultant ZIF-8 samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction and nitrogen physisorption. The surface morphology was examined via scanning electron microscopy. The results exhibited that, highly crystalline ZIF-8 was successfully synthesized within 0.5 hours at 120 °C, with the BET surface area up to 690.75 m2/g and micropore volume of 0.32 cm3/g. It was found that, at higher temperature and pressure, the formation of ZIF-8 can be affected by the expansion of solvent, which reduced the initial concentration of the reactant ions. Hence, further increased of the temperature did not cause higher crystallinity and larger size of ZIF-8 particles. © 2016 The Authors.