In this paper, chalcopyrite AgInS 2 nanorods were synthesized for the first time by a one-step, ambient pressure, environment friendly organic molten salt (OMS) method at 200 Β°C. The as-synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The XRD results reveal that the as-synthesized products at 120-160 Β°C under ambient pressure contain AgIn 5 S 8 which will decrease with the increase of growth temperature. A sample containing only the chalcopyrite AgInS 2 phase is successfully obtained at 200 Β°C. Furthermore, the elemental compositions are found to become increasingly stoichiometric with increasing temperature. UV-Vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectra are utilized to investigate the optical properties of AgInS 2 nanorods. By testing on UV-Vis spectra , it is concluded that the limiting wavelength of the AgInS 2 nanorods is 661 nm and the band gap is 1.88 eV. A broad red emission band peak centered at about 1.874 eV (662 nm) is clearly observed at room temperature, and the intensity of the emission increases with excitation wavelength. In addition, the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the nanocrystals at the excitation wavelength of 250 nm was determined to be 13.2%. A possible growth mechanism of AgInS 2 nanorods was discussed.