Gold nanowires were prepared via seed-mediated growth process. Standard X-ray powder diffraction pattern of nanowires and foil are nearly identical. The intensities of the (2 2 0) and (1 1 1) diffraction peaks was higher than the conventional value, which implied that the nanowires were abundant in {1 1 0} facets. This is in accordance with electron diffraction analysis of mature nanowires, the wires grow along the [1 1 0] directions. X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates that coordination number of gold nanowires was slightly smaller than that gold foil. Moreover, the Debye-Waller factor of the refinement result of gold nanowires implies that there were some structural defects. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.