Comparing with the other metal chalcogenide semiconductors copper selenide has still not been well researched in nanoscience and nanotechnology probably due to the difficulty in the controllable synthesis of its various phase In the present work Cu2-delta Se and CuSe were synthesized open to air through a green paraffin-acetate method The morphology study indicated that the copper selenide mainly showed hexagonal nanoplates/nanowires or only hexagonal nanoplates The SDBS-modified sample exhibited good dispersivity in water The phase composition (delta value) and morphology of the products could be controlled by adjusting the reaction parameters Stability redox and the effective Cu/Se ratio were thought as the major factors that determine the phase of the final products and a concentration-limited growth mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of the various morphologies The optical properties of the copper selenide were characterized by UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) ID (c) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved