Sb2Se3 nanowires ([0 0 1] orientation) with diameter of similar to 100 nm and high aspect ratio were successfully synthesized in large scale by a facile nonaqueous polyol method, where home-prepared NaHSe alcohol solution is used as selenium source and PEG-400 serves as an excellent solvent and structure director. The product was characterized by XRD, TEM, SAED, HRTEM, EDS and diffuses reflectance spectroscopy, respectively. The effects of the experimental conditions on the final morphologies were also investigated. The method is promising to be extended to synthesize other V2VI3 compound semiconductor 1D nanostructure. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.