A new method is developed to obtain crystalline nanowires of WO3 using mesoporous silica SBA-15 as template. The method includes aminosilylation of the surface silanols within SBA-15 channels, anchoring of the heteropoly acid (HPA) to the grafted amine groups, thermal decomposition of the HPA, and removal of the silica framework with HF. The formation of the crystalline nanowires is monitored by the in situ XRD technique. TEM images intuitively confirm that the nanowires are uniform in diameter and HRTEM images further indicate that each nanowire belongs to single crystal although the growth orientations of these nanowires are different. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.