Hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNSs), with either carbon nanotube (CNT) or metal oxide nanowire (MONW) decoration on their surface, were synthesised as building materials with a great potential for the next generation advanced applications. A well-established, polymeric latex NS synthesis method and a simply modified version of a microwave (MW) energy-based carbonisation approach, i.e. Poptube, were systematically combined to obtain these HCNSs. Through this simple, facile, affordable and easily scalable 'combined synthesis method', it was managed to successfully produce HCNSs with an unique