Large-scale production of monodispersed titania microspheres by surfactant-guided self-assembly

Large-scale, monodispersed titania microspheres have been synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method using FC-4 as surfactant at 150 degrees C. The diameter of the microspheres can be conveniently tuned by changing the concentration of titanium precursor. The microsphere is composed of densely packed radially aligned rutile nanorods which are uniformly 16 nm in diameter. The nanorods are grown along the rutile (110) crystal plane with a preferred orientation in the [001] direction. A mechanism for the formation of the microspheres has been proposed, in which the surfactant FC-4 plays important roles. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.