Obtaining Ultra-High Surface Area TiO2 Nanorods via Hydrothermally Transformation of Elongated Titanate Nanotubes

Abstract

In this paper, a tunable TiO2nanorod cross-link structure with ultra-high surface area (up to 109.81 m2/g) has been successfully prepared via hydrothermally treating elongated sodium titanate nanotubes. XRD, SEM, HRTEM and BET analysis were employed to characterize the morphology and inner structure of the samples. The preparation conditions (the hydrothermal temperatures and the pH values of the solutions) of the obtained TiO2products were systematically studied. The maximum length of nanorod reaches to 1 μm while the lateral size could be limited less than 10 nm. The surface area can be easily tuned by modifying the stirring rate during the hydrothermal process. In addition, the photocatalytic performance of synthesized TiO2nanorods were also measured, and the nanorod structure with ultra-high surface area showed much better photocatalytic activity than the sample produced without stirring process, which can be attributed to the influence of the large difference in specific surface area of the obtained TiO2products.