The large scale synthesis of multiple crystalline silver nanowires (NWs) with uniform diameter were carried out by using glycerol and ethylene glycol (EG) as co-mediated solvents in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidine) (PVP). Experimental results and structural characterizations reveal that Ag NWs are evolved from the multiple crystalline seeds initially generated by the reduction of AgNO3 with EG and glycerol. Owing to the different reduction ability and viscosity of EG and glycerol, which play an important role for controlling the nucleation at the beginning of reaction, glycerol with high viscosity slows down the migration velocity of Ag-0 in favor of forming the uniform Ag NWs with small diameter (40 nm) in the presence of PVP molecules selectively adsorbed on the surface of Ag seeds. The yield of the Ag NWs is dependent on the volume ratio of EG and glycerol. In the absence of EG, large amount of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) and few Ag NWs were created. In contrast, Ag nanorods and polyhedral particles are prepared in the case of no glycol added. This paper provides a new approach for the large scale synthesis of Ag NWs with uniform diameter by simply adjusting the solvent components. Furthermore, V-shaped Ag nanostructure was obtained and the possible growth mechanism was discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.