In this report, we initially systematically investigated the influence of the precursor Cd/Te molar ratio on the morphology of water-soluble thiol-stabilized CdTe nanocrystals. By only changing the precursor Cd/Te molar ratio, highly luminescent CdTe nanoparticles (NPs) and nanorods (NRs) can be prepared selectively in the presence of the same concentration single ligand (L-Cysteine or thioglycolic acid) system. A high precursor Cd/Te molar ratio leads to isotropic spherical growth, whereas a low Cd/Te molar ratio promotes the linear self-assembly of NPs into NRs. Thus, a new efficient strategy has been developed in aqueous phase to prepare selectively highly luminescent dot- or rod-shaped CdTe nanocrystals in single ligand system. Then, we further explored the influence of the properties of initial CdTe dispersions with different luminescence maxima on the formation of NRs. The experiment results revealed that the formation of CdTe NRs is also dependent on the properties of initial CdTe dispersions. CdTe NPs with short wavelength emission (similar to 520-550 nm) can self-assemble directly into high quality CdTe NRs after storage at room temperature. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.