A universal, simple, robust, widely applicable and cost-effective aqueous process is described for a controlled oxidative dissolution process of micrometer-sized metal powders to form high-purity aqueous dispersions of colloidally stable 3–8 nm metal oxide nanoparticles. Their utilization for making single and multilayer optically transparent high-surface-area nanoporous films is demonstrated. This facile synthesis is anticipated to find numerous applications in materials science, engineering, and nanomedicine.