The morphology of barium sulfate (BaSO 4 ), synthesized using the hydrothermal reaction of Ba II ± aminocarboxylate chelating precursors, was investigated. The precursors ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), bis(2-aminoethyl)ethyleneglycoltetraacetic acid (EGTA) and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) were dissolved by heating, resulting in the formation of BaSO 4 with rod-like, rhombohedral and spindle-shaped morphologies, respectively. Changing the chelating reagent resulted in the formation of BaSO 4 with differing morphologies. There was a correlation between the morphology of BaSO 4 and the dissociation constant of the Ba II ± aminocarboxylic acid complexes. When the dissociation constant was small, BaSO 4 formed rhombohedral morphologies, when it was large, spindle-shaped morphologies were formed. N 1s XPS measurements indicated that the aminocarboxylic acid was adsorbed on the surface of the precipitated particles. Comparison of the peak intensity X-ray diffraction patterns of EDTA and EGTA showed growth of the {101} face when EDTA was used.