In this study, we developed the ZnO aerogel through dispersed inorganic sol-gel method using citric acid as template, which employed the properties of high apparent specific surface areas. The monolithic ZnO aerogel is prepared successfully on the basis of the dispersed inorganic sol-gel method with ZnCl2 and citric acid via supercritical fluid drying. By adopting FESEM, HRTEM, XRD, FTIR and BET, we learn that the aerogel has a typical three-dimensional porous structure featuring high surface area (177m2/g). The morphology of aerogel was evaluated by field-emmision scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), which suggest that the aerogel was made up of 3-D networks and the skeletal was composed of zinc oxide colloidal particles with amorphous carbon. The N2 adsorption/desorption shows that the aerogel has high BET surface area of 177 m?g, average pore diameter about 10-60nm, which means the aerogel possesses the typical characteristic of mesopore.