In this work, we present a simple, general, effective yet mass-production strategy to prepare transition metal oxides (TMOs) nanoparticles using the metal-phthalocyanine as both the precursor and the starting self-sacrificial template. As the central metals of metal-phthalocyanine are easily tunable, various TMOs nanoparticles including Co3O4, Fe2O3, and CuO have been successfully prepared by deriving from the corresponding metal-phthalocyanine. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of the application of such nanostructured TMOs, Co3O4 nanoparticles were evaluated as anode materials for LIBs, which show high initial capacity (1132.9 mAh g(-1) at 0.05 A g(-1)), improved cycling stability (585.6 mAh g(-1) after 200 cycles at 0.05 A g(-1)), and good rate capability (238.1 mAh g(-1) at 2 A g(-1)) due to the unique properties of the ultrafine Co3O4 nanoparticles. This present strategy might open new avenues for the design of a series of transition metal oxides using organometallic compounds for a range of applications. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.