A systematic study on evolution mechanism of titanate nanostructures in the hydrothermal process

► Oriented attachment (OA) runs through the whole hydrothermal process. ► Smaller nanoparticles aggregate into larger particles mainly by the OA mechanism. ► Lamellar nanosheets through peeling off from the large powders. ► Short titanate nanotubes transform to longer nanotubes through OA process.