The composites of barium ferrite coated on hollow ceramic microspheres were prepared using sol-gel technique. The crystal structure, morphology and microwave absorption properties of composite powders with different weight ratio of microspheres were studied with XRD, EDS, FESEM and vector network analyzer. The results show that the microwave absorption properties of composite powders are greatly improved. The maximum microwave loss of composite powders reaches 31 dB with an amount of 50 wt.% microspheres, and its density is only about 1.80 g/cm(3). The effect of hollow ceramic microspheres on the microwave absorption property is also discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.