Efficient and designable strategies for fabrication of nanomaterials with controlled morphology are fundamentally important to nanotechnology development. A number of studies have shown that the morphology of nanomaterials, especially for semiconductors, determines the optical-electronic properties, band gap, photoenergy conversion efficiency, photocatalytic activities, and so forth.[1] Accordingly, various strategies based on physical and chemical methods have been developed in recent years for the fabrication of different kinds of nanomaterials. Chemical methods, such as solgel processes, micelles, chemical precipitation, hydrothermal synthesis, pyrolysis, and vapor deposition, have been frequently employed in the large-scale preparation of nanostructured materials. [2] Many nanostructured materials with uniform morphology and specific crystal planes have been successfully synthesized in recent years. For example, TiO 2 crystals with a high percentage of exposed {001} facets could be obtained with the aid of fluorine-containing compounds.[3] Hexagonal, platelike, ZnO nanocrystals with polar {001} facets were synthesized by changing the molar ratio of the reactants. [4] BiVO 4 nanoplates with the preferred (010) surface orientation have been prepared both in aqueous ethanolamine solution or in the presence of a directing agent.[5] Co 3 O 4 nanorods synthesized in an ethylene glycol solution predominantly exposed {110} planes.[6] Despite the versatile methods reported, fabrication of nanostructured materials with desirable morphology and composition still remains a big challenge and great interest in the field of material science.Herein, we report the fabrication of metal oxides with controlled morphology and crystal planes by using coordination-polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) as precursors based a on template-engaged-quasi-topotactic transformation by an "escape-by-crafty-scheme" strategy and the CPNs with designed morphology can be synthesized based on the soft chemical assembly of metal-ion precursors and organic coordination ligands at the molecular level (Scheme 1). Firstly, CPNs with well-defined morphology were synthesized by soft chemical assembly of the metal ion and ptcda. The morphology of the CPNs can be elaborately controlled by the judicious choice of synthesis conditions, such as temperature, organic additives, reactant concentration, metal ions, and so forth. Then the metal-oxide nanoparticles with maintained morphology were formed; even the crystal-plane orientation was inherited from the pristine CPNs, by a simple thermal treatment process. The CPNs act as precursors for the formation of nanostructured metal oxides with maintained morphology through a template-engaged-quasi-topotactic, transformation process. This strategy is demonstrated to be a general and convenient approach to prepare metaloxide nanomaterials with controlled morphology and crystal planes.The zinc-ion-based CPNs, Zn-ptcda, were synthesized through the reaction of ptcda with ZnA C H T U N G T R E N N U N G (OAc) 2 in a sol...