Fast and mild alkaline solvothermal synthesis of nanostructured flower-like Na2Ti3O7 and its methylene blue adsorption capacity

•Hierarchical flower-like particles are synthesized by the solvothermal method.•The sodium titanates are obtained under mildly alkaline conditions (2 M NaOH).•A Short time of solvothermal reaction (8 h) is enough to obtain the sodium titanates.•The adsorption equilibrium was achieved in a short time of 10 min. This work reports a facile solvothermal synthesis of hierarchical flower-like Na2Ti3O7 structures with fast and high methylene blue adsorption capacity. A mesoporous architecture of Na2Ti3O7 with a surface area of 159.63 m2-g-1 was produced under mild alkaline conditions (2 M NaOH) and a short reaction time (8 h). Interestingly, methylene blue adsorption equilibrium on the Na2Ti3O7 powders was achieved in a short time of 10 min. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model described the adsorption mechanism. The synthesized Na2Ti3O7 powders have interesting features that highlight their suitability for environmental applications.