Novel self-assembled calcium carbonate(CaCO3)crystals exhibiting the morphology of well-defined needles were synthesized by a simple precipitation reaction in the presence of octadecyl dihydrogen phosphate(ODP)as a crystal additive.The CaCO3 obtained by this method is hydrophobic,making it likely to be used widely in industry.The resulting products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction,field emission scanning electron microscopy,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and contact angle experiments.The results indicated that ODP plays an important role in determining the structure,morphology and hydrophobicity of CaCO3 crystals.