Nanoscale engineering of TiO2 nanoparticles: Evolution of the shape, phase, morphology, and facet orientation

The solvothermal synthesis of nanostructured TiO2 has been studied to examine the processing parameters that control crystallite size, phase, morphology, and facet orientation. Control over the characteristics of these materials makes them useful for a wide range of applications in photocatalysis, environmental pollution remediation, and solar energy conversion. Moreover, this simple, low cost, and low toxicity synthesis process could be extendable to the controlled synthesis of other functional oxide crystals with well-defined morphologies and tunable sizes with active facet orientation.