In this study, acicular goethite FeOOH was prepared via a surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method,and the phase composition and morphology of the FeOOH specimens were studied by means of XRD, SEM and TEM. The effects of hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time and different surfactants on the structure and the purity of FeOOH specimens were investigated systematically. It was found that only the Fe2O3 phase but no FeOOH phase can be found in the specimen if not using the addition of any surfactant. The best experimental conditions for the high-purity, high-crystallization and uniform -FeOOH are that the CTAB   cetyltrimethylammonium bromide of 0.2 g or 0.3 g was used as the surfactant, and the temperature conditions were at 180 reaction 2 h.