Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of TiO^sub 2^ nanostructures prepared using different solvents

Pure TiO2 nanostructures were synthesized by hydrothermal method using NaOH and KOH as solvents. Structural, optical and morphological analyses of TiO2 nanostructures were presented in this letter. Powder X-ray diffraction study was used to identify the anatase, rutile and titanate phase formation of TiO2 nanostructures. The presence of functional groups in TiO2 nanostructures was identified using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. UV–vis-NIR reflectance spectra explain the absorption nature of titanate nanostructures and bandgap was calculated as 3.43 eV and 2.96 eV. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the tube and rodlike morphologies of nano TiO2 synthesized using different solvents. The length and diameter of titanate nanotubes are 24 nm and 4 nm respectively. The length of the nanorod is 30 nm and the width is 4.5 nm.