Spiral shaped fibers were utilized to prepare completely novel metal oxide nanotubes comprising solely metal oxides. The metal oxide nanotubes comprise solely a hollow cylinder shaped metal oxide which may contain hydroxyl groups constituting a double helix and having hole diameter distributions containing two peak hole diameters ranging from 1 to 2 nm and from 3 to 7 nm. The tubes may be obtained by forming spiral shaped fibers from a solution of compound 1 ##STR00001## and compound 2 ##STR00002## and using the fibers as a template for making the nanotubes. The hydrogen adsorption and storage capacity of the metal oxide nanotubes are extremely good.