One of the biggest challenges of 21st century is to develop powerful electrochemical energy devices (EEDs). The EEDs such as fuel cells, supercapacitors, and Li-ion batteries are among the most promising candidates in terms of power-densities and energy-densities. The nanostructured materials (NSMs) have drawn intense attention to develop highly efficient EEDs because of their high surface area, novel size effects, significantly enhanced kinetics, and so on. In this review article, we briefly introduce general synthesis, fabrication and their classification as zero-dimensional (OD), one dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) NSMs. Subsequently, we focus an attention on recent progress in advanced NSMs as building blocks for EEDs (such as fuel cells, supercapacitors, and Li-ion batteries) based on investigations at the 0D, 1D, 2D and 3D NSMs. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.