Directed growth of TiO2nanorods into microspheres

In this paper, we report a synthetic route to curved 3D microspheres assembled by TiO 2 nanorods, which were built from pure 1D TiO 2 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 °C assisted by a surfactant (span80). The decomposition of urea provided OH − to form 1D TiO 2 nanostructures that further assembled giving rise to 3D microspheres.