This paper reviews the solution-phase synthesis of nanoparticles via some routes at low temperatures, such as room temperature route, wave-assisted synthesis (γ-irradiation route and sonochemical route), directly heating at low temperatures, and hydrothermal/solvothermal methods. A number of strategies were developed to control the shape, the size, as well as the dispersion of nanostructures. Using diethylamine or n-butylamine as solvent, semiconductor nanorods were yielded. By the hydrothermal treatment of amorphous colloids, Bi 2 S 3 nanorods and Se nanowires were obtained. CdS nanowires were prepared in the presence of polyacrylamide. ZnS nanowires were obtained using liquid crystal. The polymer poly (vinyl acetate) tubule acted as both nanoreactor and template for the CdSe nanowire growth. Assisted by the surfactant of sodium dodecyl benzenesulfonate (SDBS), nickel nanobelts were synthesized. In addition, Ag nanowires, Te nanotubes and ZnO nanorod arrays could be prepared without adding any additives or templates.solution-phase synthesis, nanomaterials, low temperatures, additives, template One of the important goals for nanoscale synthesis is the production of structures that achieve monodispersity, stability, and crystallinity with a predictable morphology. Nowadays, the solution-phase approach has become a promising technique to prepare nanostructures [1] . During the solution-phase synthesis of nanoparticles, the control of nucleation and successive growth, which is extremely sensitive to the synthetic parameters, has been believed to be the key to the size-and shape-controlled synthesis of nanostructures [2][3][4][5] .It is well known that most of amorphous colloids have a strong transformation tendency from thermodynamically metastable amorphous state to stable crystalline state under appropriate conditions. As for the crystalline products with a high anisotropic crystal structure, such as orthorhombic, trigonal, and hexagonal structure, the crystallization is generally accompanied with the formation of desired structure due to the necessity to obtain a match between the symmetry of the crystal and their geometric shape [6,7] .Solvent is an important parameter on the growth of various morphologies. For example, Xia's group has reported the synthesis of various 1D nanostructures (wires, rods, and tubes) of t-Te in different solvents (ethylene glycol, water, and their mixtures) via a refluxing process [8,9] .In some of the solution-phase synthesis routes, controlling size, shape and dispersion of nanostructure have been achieved by the use of hard template (porous alumina [10,11] , mesoporous silica [12] , carbon nanotubes [13][14][15] , etc.), soft templates (liquid crystal [16] , micelles [17,18] , microemulsions [19] , etc.) or structure-directing additives, including surfactants [20,21] and polymers [22] , etc. In addition, Caswell et al. [23] have reported a seedless and surfactantless wet chemical approach to prepare silver nanowires.