Microwave Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis of TiO2 Nanorods for Photocatalytic Application

Abstract

In this work, TiO2 nanorods were grown using microwave assisted hydrothermal 
technique. The samples were characterized in detail by XRD, FE-SEM, Raman, and UV visible 
spectrometry techniques. Besides, photocatalytic characteristics were evaluated through 
measuring the degradation rate of methylene blue to establish a correlation between structure 
and photochemical properties. We were able to control morphology of the TiO2 nanorods by 
changing the reaction time during synthesis. The samples possessed a rutile phase and the 
crystallinity of the samples was significantly enhanced when the reaction time increased. The 
FE-SEM images show that nanostructures consist of several nanorods coming out of a single 
core and have very sharp edges. It was observed that the length and diameter of nanorod can be 
modified by changing the reaction time. The as prepared sample (for reaction time of 45 min) 
shows good photocatalytic activity. We established photocatalytic characteristics of TiO2 
nanorods for technological application.