High surface area hexagonal ZnO nano-particles were obtained at room temperature from hydrolysis of the amide derivative Zn[N(SiMe 3 ) 2 ] 2 . The same procedure applied on silica or cellulose substrates led to homogeneous crack-free hybrid materials for which micro- down to nano-meter replication into ZnO cloth was achieved by calcination at 700°C. These materials were characterized by FT-IR, UV–vis, photoluminescence, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). They demonstrated enhanced photocatalytic degradation of a tough pollutant such as CH 3 SSCH 3 compared with commercial ZnO powder.