Hydrothermal synthesis of single-crystalline anatase TiO2 nanorods with nanotubes as the precursor

Preparation of anatase TiO2 nanorods from solutions in the absence of surfactants or templates has rarely been reported. The present work has found that hydrothermal treatment of titanate nanotube suspensions under an acidic environment resulted in the formation of single-crystalline anatase nanorods with a specific crystal-elongation direction. The nanotube suspensions were prepared by treatment of TiO2 in NaOH, followed by mixing with HNO3 to different pH values. The crystal size of the anatase nanoparticles obtained from the hydrothermal treatment increased with the pH of the suspensions, and nanorods with an aspect ratio up to 6 and a long axis along the anatase [001] were obtained at a pH slightly less than 7. A mechanism for the tube-to-rod transformation has been proposed on the basis of the crystalline structures of the tubes and rods. The local shrinkage of the tube walls to form anatase crystallites and the subsequent oriented attachment of the crystallites have been suggested to be the key steps involved in the nanorod formation.