Uniform hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) nanoplates exposing {001} plane as basal planes have been prepared by a facile solvothermal method under the assistance of sodium acetate. The morphological evolution of the nanoplates was studied by adjusting the reaction parameters including the solvent and the amount of sodium acetate. The results indicated that both the adequate nucleation/growth rate and selective adsorption of alcohol molecules and acetate anions contribute to the formation of the plate-like morphology. In addition, the size of the nanoplates can be adjusted from ca. 180 nm to 740 nm by changing the reaction parameters. Three nanoplate samples with different size were selected to investigate the gas sensing performance, photocatalytic and magnetic properties. As gas sensing materials, all the alpha-Fe2O3 nanoplates exhibited high gas sensitivity and stability toward n-butanol. When applied as photocatalyst, the alpha-Fe2O3 nanoplates show high photodegradation efficiency towards RhB. Both the gas sensing performance and the photocatalytic property of the products exhibit obvious size-dependent effect. Magnetic measurements reveal that the plate-like alpha-Fe2O3 particles possess good room temperature magnetic properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.