Hydrothermal growth of titania nanostructures with tunable phase and shape

In this paper, we report hydrothermal synthesis of titania nanostructure with tunable phase and shape in the presence of methylcellulose (MC) and NaCl. As determined by X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy, nanosized flower-like rutile titania (nanorod aggregates) was obtained without the presence of MC. While MC was added, the assembled spheres of bicrystalline (brookite and rutile) titania nanoparticles was produced, and the bicrystalline titania with a brookite fraction in the range of 0–49.2% was prepared by changing the MC concentration. The mechanisms of bicrystalline phase formation were also briefly discussed.