Facile method for the selective growth of rice like rutile TiO2 from peroxotitanate gel and its photo-activity

► The paper describes the facile method for the preparation of Rutile TiO2 with rice like morphology. ► Trifluoroacetic acid is reported as a growth regulator for the selective growth of rice like rutile TiO2 which is not reported earlier. ► The rice like TiO2 is found to be more active than Degussa P-25 TiO2 for the degradation of phenol under UV light.