Hydrothermal synthesis of TiO
2
nanofibres
Fei-Bao Zhang, Hu-Lin Li
⁎
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China
Received 29 November 2005; received in revised form 11 January 2006; accepted 5 February 2006
Available online 20 March 2006
Abstract
TiO
2
nanofibres were synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The result shows that the growth of TiO
2
nanofibres is sensitive to the
concentration of NaOH and the heating temperature.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Nanofibres; Transmission electron microscopy; X-ray diffraction
1. Introduction
Investigation on T iO
2
has been attracting worldwide interest
during the past decades [1–3] for its promising application in l ight
emission, gas sensors, catalyst and solar cells. Low dimensional
nanostructures materials have shown many advantages. Low di-
mensional CdSe nanoro ds have been reported to be better in sola r
energy conv ersion for their single -crystal structures can supply a
directed path for electron transport [4]. A more than 2-fold increase
in maximum photoconversion efficiency for water splitting has
been observed b y replacing TiO
2
nanocrystalline f ilms with T iO

na-
nofibres based on the hydrothermal method. This method may
open a new door to synthesize novel morphology via changing
some conditions.
2. Experimental
The titanium dioxide (TiO
2
, anatase) and sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) are obtained as analysis pure grade and used without
Materials Science and Engineering C 27 (2007) 80– 82
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⁎
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 931 891 2517; fax: +86 931 891 2582.
E-mail address: (H L. Li).
0 1020304050607080 9
0
2
θ
/degree
(2 1 1)
(1 0 5)
(2 0 0)
(0 0 4)
(1 0 0)
Fig. 1. XRD patterns for the sample.
0928-4931/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msec.2006.02.001
further purification and treatment. TiO
2
nanofibres were

into the crystalline structure of anatase TiO
2
. The result is in
accordance with the standard spectrum (JCPDS, card no.
21-1272).
The morphologies of the as-prepared products were inves-
tigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM; Hitachi
600, Japan). Fig. 2 shows a TEM micrograph for the product.
One can see that the product consists of entangled fibres. Fig. 2
(E) shows a TEM micrograph for “ analytically pure” TiO
2
commercial powder. The particle size is about 10 μm.
Compared with Kasuga et al. [7] , who have prepared
titanium oxide nanotubes with a diameter of ≈ 8 nm and a
length of ≈ 100 nm when sol–gel-derived fine TiO
2
-based
powders were treated chemically (e.g., for 20 h at 110 °C) with a
5–10 M NaOH aqueous solution, we have prepared TiO
2
na-
nofibres with lower concentration of NaOH and higher tem-
perature. The experiment was also carried out with different
concentrations of the alkali and at different temperatures. These
TiO
2
nanofibres can be formed via the hydrothermal method
when the concentration of the alkali is about 1 M and the
temperature is not less than 160 °C. If the concentration of the
alkali increased and the temperature was about 110 °C, short

[8] X.Y. Zhang, L.D. Zhang, W. Chen, G.W. Meng, M.J. Zheng, L.X. Zhao,
Chem. Mater. 13 (2001) 2511.
[9] T. Kasuga, M. Hiramatsu, A. Hoson, T. Sekino, K. Niihara, Adv. Mater. 11
(1999) 1307.
[10] S.K. Pradhan, P.J. Reucroft, F. Yang, A. Dozier, J. Cryst. Growth 256
(2003) 83.
82 F B. Zhang, H L. Li / Materials Science and Engineering C 27 (2007) 80–82