The growth of In2O3 nanowires (NWs) at a lower precursor temperature of 400-600 degrees C were investigated using a cost-effective chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method at growth temperatures of 500-900 degrees C. Different reactants for CVD precursors were tested, and the only successful reactant for growing In2O3 NWs was the (In+InCl3) mixture. The structure and crystallography of NWs was characterized by selected-area diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It is proposed that the effective InCl precursor formed by the reaction between indium and InCl3 is able to dissociate and dissolute into gold catalysts for the purpose of growing CVD nanowires via the vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism, but InCl3 only is difficult to do and is easily oxidized to form crystals instead of NWs. (C) 2008 The Electrochemical Society.