We report a facile hydrothermal synthetic approach to selectively produce 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensional MnO2 nanomaterials reliably and conveniently. The influences of reaction conditions on the morphology and crystallographic forms and the formation mechanism of the as-obtained MnO2 nanostructures have been studied in this work. And the materials produced by this method have excellent crystalline nature. Preliminary electrochemical study indicates that the as-prepared 2-dimensional MnO2 nanomaterials are excellent cathode materials using in lithium batteries.