A facile approach to fabricate Mn-doped ZnO hollow nanospheres is reported. Zn2+ and Mn2+ cations were adsorbed onto the surface of carbon template to form a core/shell structure in solution. Subsequent calcination of the core/shell structure would lead to the formation of Mn-doped ZnO hollow nanospheres. The magnetic properties of the hollow spheres were dependent on the calcination temperature. The room-temperature ferromagnetism was obtained when the temperature was less than 900 degrees C. However, the ferromagnetic behavior disappeared when the temperature was elevated to 1200 degrees C. The possible reason is the short-ranged ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction between neighboring Mn atoms by forming a bridge bond by Hi. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.