The length of the arms of a nanorod-based architecture can be adjusted from 100 nm up to a micrometer (see Figure) when using the simple one step surfactant-ligand co-assisted solvothermal technique reported here. The arm lengths are controlled by simply changing the relative concentrations of dodecylthiol and ethylenediamine when preparing the multi-armed US architecture with CdCl2 and thiourea as reactants.