Hierarchical nanoporous zirconias with an aligned microtubular structure of inner diameter 0.5-1.5 mum and length 5-30mum and an extremely high surface area and large pore volume (up to 1100 m(2)/g and 3.0 cm(3) /g, respectively) have been prepared by a simple method from a mixture of zirconium propoxide and chloroform solutions in the presence of nonionic polyethylene oxide surfactant. The tubular walls are composed of wormhole-like nanopores, resulting in very high surface areas and large pore volumes of hierarchical porous materials for multi-applications. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.