Abstract: Nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 with crystallite size of 15nm～32nm was directly synthesized by stearate precursor. The overall process involves three steps: formation of homogeneous sol, formation of dried gel, and calcination of the dried gel. TG-DTA, XRD and BET techniques were used to analyze and characterize the dried gel and the assynthesized sorbent, respectively. The results show that the zinc ferrite prepared by stearate precursor could proceed at relatively lower temperature. The calcination temperatures have great impact on the desulfurization performance of zinc ferrite. When the temperature increases, the specific surface area decreases and the average crystallite size increases, which results in deterioration of desulfurization performance of the sorbent. The prepared sorbent shows a high reactivity and high sulfur capacity when operated at moderate temperature range. It also has good reproducibility and can be regenerated even at 450℃. These indicate that the stearate precursor technique would be a potential approach for the synthesis of desulfurization sorbent.