Copper/carbon core/shell structure nanoparticles and nanowires are successfully synthesized by using a one-step low-temperature metal-organic chemical vapor with copper (II) acetylacetonate powders as precursor. Morphology and structure of copper/carbon core/shell nanomaterial can be well controlled by deposition temperature For instance, copper/carbon core/shell nanowires about 200 nm in diameter can be produced at 400 ℃. The mixture of nanowires and nanoparticles can be produced at 450 ℃. At 600 ℃ the production is the copper/carbon core/shell nanoparticles about 22 nm in diameter. The obtained copper/carbon core/shell nanostucture is found to be formed by a novel coalescence mechanism that is quite different from the well-known dissolution-precipitation mechanism The optical property of copper/carbon core/shell nanostructure is investigated Uv-vis spectrometer and the fluorescence spectrometer (PL). The results show that the surface plasma resonance peaks of copper/carbon core/shell nanowire and nanoparticle are located at 620 nm and 616 nm respectively. At 225 nm, copper absorbing peak can be found. The PL peaks of copper/carbon core/shell nanowires are located at 312 nm and 348 nm, and the PL peaks of copper/carbon core/shell nanoparticles are observed at 304 nm and 345 nm.