The invention provides a nanometer metal oxide and a preparation method thereof, and belongs to the field of nanometer inorganic compound photocatalytic materials and dyestuff manufacturing techniques. The present invention selects halides or inorganic salts containing metal ions as the source of metal ions, selects complexing agent, sucrose, glucose, acrylamide, bisacrylamide, agar, gelatin and carboxymethyl cellulose as gel raw materials, and evenly disperses the metal Ions, use industrial irradiation equipment to irradiate the raw material solution or emulsion to form a gel with a spatial network structure, and prepare nanoscale metal oxides through the later grinding and sintering processes. These nanoscale metal oxides can be used as excellent photocatalysts or dyes. The preparation method of the invention is simple, the process is stable, the operability is strong, the consumption of gel raw materials is greatly reduced, no heating is required, no special treatment of raw materials is required, and industrial irradiation devices can be used for mass production.