We report a versatile synthetic route allowing the formation of transition metal oxide nanoparticles supported on solid surfaces. Basically, the method lies on the complexation of metal cations with both anionic surfactant and hydroxilated surfaces, which results in the formation of small aggregates onto the surface. At thermodynamical equilibrium, the resulting balance between the loss of entropy due to the aggregation and the gain in enthalpy due to hydrophobic interactions between the alkyl chains of the surfactant governs the size of these aggregates. After calcination in air, metal oxide nanoparticles with very narrow size distribution are obtained. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.