The synthesis and characterization of hollow nanospheres, nanowires and coaxial nanowires of cubic phase silicon carbide (beta-SiC) were reported. The reaction between SiCl4 (or Si powders), C6Cl6 and sodium was used to prepare SiC nanostructures at different temperature. The samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction (ED), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Raman, photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) procedures. Studies found that temperature and reagents were key factors for the samples' morphologies. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.