This paper describes how the specific properties of supercritical fluids have been exploited in the last 5 years for synthesizing functional nanostructured materials, especially in the field of inorganic and hybrid materials. It is shown that control of the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials (size, morphology, structure and composition) as "nanobricks" is achieved by choosing specific operating parameters. Next, the structure formation of these "nanobricks" is discussed in order to design advanced nanostructured materials. This is illustrated with the design of nanorods, nanowires, conformational films, core-shell structure, supported nanoparticles, polymer impregnation with nanoparticles and organic coating of particles. The associated properties for applications in many interesting fields, such as catalysis, electronics, energy, optics, etc. are reported. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.