Novel dumbbell-like SrSO4 with hierarchical architecture was fabricated with a facile template-free aqueous solution method at room temperature. The crystallographic morphology of SrSO4 products depends mainly on the pH value of the reaction solution. The SrSO4 products exhibit a dumbbell-like hierarchical architecture at pH = 3 and 5, and have a tablet-like crystallographic morphology at pH = 1 when keeping other reaction parameters unchanged. The dumbbell-like SrSO4 synthesized at pH = 3 has a length of 8-14 mu m, and is composed of numerous well-aligned single crystalline nanoplates with an average width of 140 nm and a length of 0.7-1 mu m. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of the crystallized SrSO4 products is about 2.8 m(2) g(-1). A formation mechanism is proposed for the evolution process of dumbbell-like SrSO4 with hierarchical architecture. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.