Large amounts of La2Mo2O9 nano-wires have been produced using molten-salt synthesis method. The powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy are used to investigate structure and morphological features of the obtained products. The formed nano-wires have an average diameter of about 100 nm and a length in the range from ten to several tens of micrometers. The analyses of the high resolution transmission electron microscopy and the selected area electron diffraction results show that the nano-wires are single crystalline and grow along the [0 0 1] direction. A growth mechanism of La2Mo2O9 nano-wires is also proposed in this report. It implies that the temperature, chloride ions and cation lattice in beta-La2Mo2O9 might be related to the particles morphologies transition. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.