Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanocrystals with tubular, Cubic and hollow cubic morphologies were obtained in simple solution-phase reduction systems using nonionic surfactant octylphenyl ether (Triton X-100) as solvent. Uniform single crystal nanotubes with outer diameters of similar to 20 nm, inner diameters of similar to 10 nm and lengths of similar to 120 nm were prepared through reduction of CuCl, by glucose. When a little amount of water was dispersed into Triton X-100, uniform cube-shaped polycrystals with edge lengths of similar to 180 nm were synthesized, with ascorbic acid as the reducing agent. The water cores formed by surrounded Triton X-100 molecules with hydrophilic heads immersed provided the reaction rooms. With the help of ethanol introduced into water cores by Triton X-100 molecules, Cu2O nanocubes turned to hollow cubes with edge lengths of similar to 200 nm during the ripening process. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were used to investigate the different morphologies of the assynthesized products. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) were applied to characterize the composition and crystal phases of the products. It was proposed that molecules and molecule assemblies of Triton X-100 played different roles in the shape-controlled synthesis process, which were realized by carefully controlling the experiment conditions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.