Surfactant template synthesis attracts great attention in the fields of biomaterials and functional materials. In this study, highly ordered lamellar hydroxyapatite (L alpha-HA) powder was synthesized by a surfactant templating method in water-ethanol. Ca(NO3)(2) and (NH4)(2)HPO4 were used as calcium and phosphorus sources, respectively. Sodium dodecyl sulphonate (SDS, C12H25SO3Na) acted as the template. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses showed that HA is the only crystal phase in L alpha-HA. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation further proved this regular lamellar structure detected by XRD. The repeat periodicity of the structure is about 3.6 nm observed by TEM, which is in well accordance with the XRD data (3.16 nm). The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) results indicated that L alpha-HA was a polycrystalline structure. The formation of L alpha-HA could be explained by a surfactant template. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.