Synthesis of gold nanowhiskers with uniform lateral dimension (similar to100nm) and lengths up to similar to 10muM was achieved by a seed-mediated growth process involving utilization of silver nanoparticles as seeds and subsequent polymer-controlled growth in a refluxing system heated to similar to 180degreesC. Glycol was used as both solvent and reducing agent to produce silver nanoparticles, while poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) was used as a shape-inducing additive to guide the growth of nanostructures into nanowhiskers. The obtained gold nanowhiskers were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and UV-Vis spectroscopy. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.