Abstract: Boehmite（γ-AlOOH） nanorods of about 10 nm in the radial direction were successfully obtained with 1mol/L AlCl3 solution as aluminium source and 1 mol/L NaOH solution as precipitant at 180 ℃ with pH=9 for 48 h via the hydrothermal method.The phases，morphologies，and optical absorption properties of as-prepared samples were characterized and analyzed with X-ray diffraction（XRD），field-emission transmission electron microscope（FE-SEM），and ultraviolet-visible spectrophoto- meter（UV-Vis），respectively.Results showed that the increasement of the reaction temperature and the pH was in favor of the synthesis of γ-AlOOH nanorods in the hydrothermal reaction system.However，with the further enhancement of the reaction temperature and the pH，it was propitious to prepare γ-AlOOH nanoflakes.The results of UV-Vis analysis showed that the optical absorption ability of γ-AlOOH nanorods was more than that of γ-AlOOH nanoflakes.Especially，γ-AlOOH nanorods had more outstanding optical absorption property as its slenderness ratio increased.

Key words: AlCl3； hydrothermal method；&gamma, -AlOOH nanorod；optical absorption property