Porous zinc ferrite (ZnFe 2 O 4 ) nanorods have been synthesized by the thermal decomposition of ZnFe 2 (C 2 O 4 ) 3 nanorods precursor, which was prepared by template-, surfactant-free solvothermal method. The morphology and structure of the obtained ZnFe 2 (C 2 O 4 ) 3 nanorods precursor and porous ZnFe 2 O 4 nanorods were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the as-synthesized ZnFe 2 O 4 retained the precursor morphology of 1D nanorods with diameters of 100–200nm and lengths of several micrometers and plenty of nanoparticles were interconnected to each other to form porous nanorods. The as-prepared ZnFe 2 O 4 nanorods as a kind of subsequently light-driven photocatalyst exhibited good photocatalytic decomposition activity for methylene blue (MB).