A new surfactant-assisted hydrothermal route was presented to prepare organometallic tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum nanorod bundles on a large scale. In this hydrothermal system, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (Chemical formula: C12H25-C6H4-SO3Na, SDBS) played key roles in controlling the morphology and quality of the resultant products. The as-prepared nanorod bundles showed enhanced PL emission compared to submicron particles prepared by the same hydrothermal method.