Thermal stability of titanate nanorods and titania nanowires formed from titanate nanotubes by heating

The structure of titanate nanowires was studied by a combination of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and 3D precession electron diffraction. Titania nanowires and titanate nanorods were prepared by heating of titanate nanotubes. The structure of final product depended on heating conditions. Titanium nanotubes heated in air at a temperature of 850 °C decomposed into three phases - Na2Ti6O13 (nanorods) and two phases of TiO2 - anatase and rutile. At higher temperatures the anatase form of TiO2 transforms into rutile and the nanorods change into rutile nanoparticles. By contrast, in the vacuum only anatase phases of TiO2 were obtained by heating at 900 °C. The anatase transformation into rutile began only after a longer time of heating at 1000 °C. For the description of anisotropic XRD line broadening in the total powder pattern fitting by the program MSTRUCT a model of nanorods with elliptical base was included in the software. The model parameters - rod length, axis size of the elliptical base, the ellipse flattening parameter and twist of the base could be refined. Variation of particle shapes with temperature was found.