This paper reports that nanoporous AlN particles are synthesized from solid-state metathesis reactions using AlCl3and Mg3N2 as reactants. The samples are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that samples with walls 10 nm in thickness and pores between 10 nm and 100 nm in diameter were produced successfully from these reactions, and their band gap and vibration modes agree with those of A1N bulk crystal.