The 3-dimensional hierarchical ZnO flower-like architectures have been synthesized in a Zn(Ac)(2)center dot 2H(2)O-Na2SeO3-KBH4-pyridine solvothermal system at 100 degrees C for 24 h. The flower-like architecture is assembled from ZnO nanosheets with a thickness of similar to 1.5 nm, and the flower-like architecture specific surface area is 132 m(2)/g. When the ZnO flower-like architecture is used as the adsorbent for acid fuschin (AF), malachite green (MG), basic fuchsin (BF), congo red (CR) and acid red (AR) in water, the adsorption capacities for AF, MG, BF, CR and AR are 7154.9, 2587.0,1377.9, 85.0 and 38.0 mg/g, respectively. Evidently, the as-obtained ZnO flower-like architectures show excellent adsorption performances for triphenylmethane dyes, and the adsorption capacity of 7154.9 mg/g for AF is the highest of all adsorbents for dyes. The adsorption mechanism can be attributed to the electrostatic attraction and the formation of ion-association complex between triphenylmethane dyes and ZnO hierarchical flower-like architectures. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.