Cubic phase spherical zirconia nano-powderwas prepared by a direct template route in the lamellar liquid crystal formed by polyoxyethylene

tert

-octylphenyl ether (Triton X-100)/sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/H

2

O. The precursor powder and zirconia powder were characterized by XRD

FT-IR

TG/DSC

TEM

and SEM methods. Results show that the stability of the lamellar liquid crystal is controlled by NH

3

· H

2

O concentration. The size of nanoparticles is greatly affected by NH

3

·H

2

Oand ZrOCl

2

· 8H

2

O concentrations. The zirconia nanoparticles shownarrow particle size distribution of 10-30 nm.