ABSTRACT:There are limitations for pure ZnO nanomaterial when function as photocatalyst． For example，the photoinduced electrons and holes in ZnO recombine quickly and the available wavelength for ZnO absorption only locates in a narrow UV wave band of the light spectrum． Therefore，recently noble metal combined ZnO heterostructures have received special attention for their interesting feature of not only overco-ming the limitations of pure ZnO，but also generating novel electrical，optical，and catalytic properties based on the synergetic interaction． Herein，the mechanism and synthesis methods of ZnO-noble metal heterostructures as a type of promising photocatalysts were summarized． The future development of the ZnO-noble metal heterostructured photocatalysts was predicted．