Directed growth of TiO2 nanorods into microspheres

In this paper, we report a synthetic route to curved 3D microspheres assembled by TiO2 nanorods, which were built from pure 1D TiO2 nanocrystals through a solvothermal approach under controlled conditions. The method involves the reaction of titanium trichloride with urea in an n-butanol and water mixture at 150 degrees C assisted by a surfactant (span80). The decomposition of urea provided OH- to form 1D TiO2 nanostructures that further assembled giving rise to 3D microspheres.