The invention discloses a preparing method and application of a tungsten based nanoflower material. Cu, W metal blocks and rare-earth salts are subjected to sufficient ball milling mixing, through thevariable current laser ion beam gas phase method, rare earth doping 50 nm-1 micrometer Cu-W alloy nanospheres are prepared, through control over the liquid phase oxidization temperature and time, metal copper is removed, rare earth doping W-W2O3 composite structure is obtained, and finally, through burning, rare earth doped tungsten-based nanoflower materials with flaky density controllability and rich oxygen vacancy are prepared. The application of the tungsten based nanoflower material to preparing of a photocatalyst or gas sensor or battery cathode material is provided, and the prepared rare earth doped tungsten-based nanoflower materials containing rich oxygen vacancy can be applied to high-performance lithium-ion battery cathode materials, sensor materials or photocatalytic material.Compared with the prior art, the process is simple in step, the reaction time is short, the repeating is good, the yield is high, the cost is low, and the large-scale application potentiality is achieved.