Indium (In) metal whiskers/nanowires, In2O3 nanowires, nanoscale ln(2)O(3) cubes and octahedrons are synthesized by heating In chunks at high temperature in Ar flow at ambient pressure. The In whiskers/nanowires have low melting point and thus can be evaporated (burnt) by the illumination of intensive electron beam, and provide a candidate to be used as solder and fuse in the nano-electronics. Different morphologies of ln(2)O(3) products, especially the nanoscale In2O3 cubes and octahedrons are firstly obtained by the traditional chemical vapor deposition process other than the solution one, which may indicate a new way to fabricate other kinds of nanoscale polyhedrons. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.