Hydrothermal synthesis of anatase TiO2 nanorods with high crystallinity using ammonia solution as a solvent

Anatase TiO2 nanorods with high crystallinity were synthesized using ammonia solution (28%) as a solvent by through the hydrothermal method. The X-ray diffraction pattern confirmed the product's anatase phase and high crystallinity, and the transmission electron microscope (TEM) image demonstrated the unique morphologies of the two ends of the TiO2 nanorods (two tringle-horn shapes and one round-horn shape), whose lengths and widths were within the ranges of 200-300 and 60-110 nm, respectively. The high-resolution TEM image clearly displayed the crystal lattices of the (101) planes lying along the direction of the lengthes of the TiO2 nanorods. The energy dispersive X-ray spectrum of a TiO2 nanorod revealed the presence of about 4 atm% nitrogen element as a trace in the anatase TiO2 nanorod. The Raman spectrum of the TiO2 nanorods also showed the typical bands of anatase TiO2 and very weak peaks resulting from the TiN first-order defect-induced Raman scattering. The UV-vis diffuse-reflectance spectra showed a slight red shift (about 3 nm) of the anatase TiO2 nanorods compared with P25, which probably resulted from the trace of TiN on the surfaces of the anatase TiO2 nanorods. A three-stage-process mechanism model is proposed for the formation of the nanorods: Rhombus crystallites bounded by four {101} faces are first formed through anisotropic growth, then longer rhombus crystallites are grown via oriented attachment, finally, nanorods with a unique morphology are self-assembled by Van Der Waals forces.