The single-crystal Mn3O4 nanorods with the particular growth planes, one of the {112} planes in the lateral and one of the {101} planes in the longitudinal, were reported. The diameter of the Mn3O4 nanorods is about 50-100nm with lengths up to several tens micrometers. The ratio of O/Mn is increased with increasing length of the Mn3O4 nanorods. The coercivity of the nanorods is 10.49 kOe at 5 K, which is about four times that of bulk Mn3O4, A considerable enhancement in Curie temperature was observed for the Mn3O4 phase in the nanorods, compared to its bulk counterpart. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.