We report herein on the oriented growth of ZnO crystals on magnetite nanoparticles. The ZnO crystals were grown by hydrolyzing a supersaturated aqueous solution of zinc nitrate. The seeds for the growth were magnetite nanoparticles with a diameter of 5.7 nm and a narrow size distribution. Hollowed ZnO hexagons of 0.15 microm width and 0.5 microm length filled with Fe(3)O(4) particles were obtained. HR-TEM (high-resolution transmission electron microscopy) and selected-area EDS (energy-dispersive spectroscopy) show that the nanoparticles are homogenously spread in the ZnO tubes. Zeta potential measurements were employed to understand the relationship between the nanoparticles and the oriented growth of the ZnO crystals. The results show that the surfactants induced the directional growth of the ZnO crystals.