We report the rational design and fabrication of magnetically separable zinc ferrite@titanium dioxide (ZnFe2O4@TiO2) hollow core/shell nanospheres as photocatalysts for efficient H-2 evolution by loading the TiO2 shell layer on the prepared ZnFe2O4 hollow nanospheres using the kinetics-controlled coating method. Meanwhile, the incident light absorption, photogenerated charge transfer and separation and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity were remarkably improved by well anchoring cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots on the ZnFe2O4@TiO2 hollow core/shell nanospheres. This unique design integrates the structural and functional merits of the ZnFe2O4, TiO2, and CdSe quantum dots into porous hollow nanospheres with the double-shell heterostructure. This design significantly accelerates the separation and transport of photogenerated charge carriers, enhances the light absorption, and offers more active sites for the photocatalytic H-2 evolution reaction. Benefitting from the unique structural and component merits, the optimized magnetically separable ZnFe2O4@TiO2/CdSe hollow core/shell nanospheres exhibit excellent photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance with a high H-2 generation rate (266.0 mu mol h(-1).g(-1)) and high stability. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.