Large-scale carbon nanostructures with unique morphologies were successfully synthesized by a reduction-catalysis reaction route. The as-synthesized products, characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM, revealed that hollow carbon nanospheres with diameters in the range of 100-200 nm can be formed at 500 degrees C while the tetrapod-like carbon nanotubes with bamboo structure can be synthesized with the typical diameters of about 100 nm and length of over 1 mu m. Two strong and wide Raman peaks at 1600 cm(-1) (G-band) and at 1347 cm(-1) (D-band) are observed at room temperature and their mechanism of formation is discussed. These unique carbon nanostructures offer potential applications, such as nanoscale transistors, amplifiers, switches and ballistic rectifiers and so on. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.