<p>Metal oxide nanocomposites have generated great interest in a number of areas, including forensic science, particularly the development of latent fingerprints. To overcome the drawbacks and complexities of conventional latent fingerprint development like background hindrance, lower sensitivity, etc., in this study, newly synthesized nanocomposites of Z_{(1− <i>x</i>)}C_{(1− <i>y</i>)}  have been reported. Nanocomposites were synthesized through convenient hydrothermal method in different molar ratios and characterization techniques applied are FTIR, XRD, FESEM, TEM, and UV–Vis to identify their structural, morphological, and optical properties. Synthesized nanocomposites have been applied for latent finger prints developments on various substrates like glass surface,&#xa0;glossy colored paper, metallic surface, plastic, silver surface, and brown paper. Results show the well-defined details of ridge patterns with low background hindrance under normal light conditions. Thus, the synthesized nanocomposites can be new potential candidate in forensic applications.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>