ZrO2 hollow porous microspheres have been fabricated successfully using living yeast cells as bio-templates through a facile ageing process at lower crystallizing temperature. XRD, SEM, FT-IR and N-2 adsorption-desorption were used to characterize ZrO2 hollow microspheres. The results showed that the inorganic-organic hybrid hollow microspheres were fabricated at 100 degrees C and ZrO2 hollow microspheres with tetragonal phase and porous structure were obtained at 300 degrees C. The crystallization temperature of ZrO2 decreased obviously due to the inducting of bio-molecules. The as-prepared hollow microspheres are approximately ellipsoid. The shells of these hollow microspheres are porous, which are composed of some nanoparticles with size of similar to 20 nm. The formation mechanism of ZrO2 hollow microspheres was proposed and discussed tentatively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.