A novel chemical synthetic route has been developed to prepare ZrC hollow nanospheres at 600degreesC, using ZrCl4 and C6Cl6 as source materials, and metallic Na as the reductant. The samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. And an in situ template reduction-carbonization mechanism for ZrC hollow nanospheres was proposed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.