The invention relates to a method for preparing trihydroxy cobalt hydroxide, which comprises the following steps of: adding an appropriate amount of cobalt chloride and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride into mixed liquor of N,N-dimethylformamide and deionized water, and slightly stirring to form red uniform solution; adding 30 weight percent of hydrogen peroxide, fully mixing, screwing a reaction kettle, putting into a drying box, and standing at the temperature of 150 DEG C; and performing centrifugal separation on a product, and washing for multiple times to obtain the product. Comparedwith the prior art, the method has the advantages that: a new type of trihydroxy cobalt hydroxide is synthesized by a hydrothermal method, is well crystallized, and has controllable size and structure, high purity and definite components; the preparation method is simple and practicable, and high in operability and repeatability; and the powdered product has stable performance, can be stored in air at room temperature for a long time, and can be widely used for the fields of energy batteries, catalysis, electrochemistry, gas sensors, magnetics and the like.