A low-temperature solution-phase method has been demonstrated for the synthesis of uniform nanorods of Bi 2 S 3 with diameter of 18nm and length of below 200nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies revealed that these nanorods were grown from a colloidal dispersion of amorphous Bi 2 S 3 particles, which was first formed through a thermal reaction between Bi-thiol complexes Bi(SC 12 ) 3 and thioacetamide (TAA) in a pure dodecanethiol (C 12 SH) solvent at a temperature of 95°C. Based on these studies, the growth mechanism of Bi 2 S 3 nanorods was properly proposed.