Abstract. An in-situ EXAFS method is developed to study the nucleation and growth processes of nanocrystals by using a microfluidic reactor which converts the time-dependent kinetics to position-dependence. As an example, we measured the Se K-edge EXAFS spectra for CdSe nanocrystals along a microfluidic reactor channel and indicated strong time-dependence of the nucleation and growth at the beginning of the reaction. A rapid increase of the reaction yield within several seconds was observed. It is found that after injection of starting materials, the nucleation occurs abruptly and the CdSe nuclei concentration reaches the maximum and then declines rapidly.