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Crystalline nanotubes of g-AlOOH and g-Al2O3 have been synthesized. An anionic surfactant-assisted hydrothermal process yields g-AlOOH nanotubes, and appropriate calcination treatment of the g-AlOOH nanotubes yields g-Al2O3 nanotubes. The nanotubes were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, TG-DSC, FTIR and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. Both the g-AlOOH and g-Al2O3 nanotubes are crystalline, with a representative length of [?]500 nm and diameters of 20-40 nm. The g-Al2O3 nanotubes exhibit a very high mesoporous specific surface area (SSA) of 201.0 m2 g[?]1 and a high mesopore volume of 0.68 cm3 g[?]1 with an average mesopore size of 27.7 nm, as well as a high microporous SSA of 186.0 m2 g[?]1 and a micropore volume of 0.08 cm3 g[?]1 with an average micropore size of 0.53 nm. The formation process was discussed and a possible mechanism was proposed, in which a lamellar phase was first formed by camphorsulfonic anions and Al(III) species, and then rolled up to form the crystalline nanotubes under the hydrothermal condition. The catalytic performance of the obtained g- Al2O3 nanotubes was tested by using the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene as a probe reaction and it was shown that the obtained g- Al2O3 nanotubes catalyst possesses a higher catalytic activity compared with the g- Al2O3 nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]