Role of Temperature and Growth Period in the Synthesis of Hydrothermally Grown TiO2 Nanorods

Highly uniformed, surfactant free and vertically oriented titanium-di-oxide (TiO₂) nanorods were grown on pre-treated fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) using hydrothermal method through titanium tetra butoxide (Ti(OBu)₄) as titanium source. Three different temperatures 130 °C, 150 °C and 180 °C were followed to grow the nanorods at a fixed reaction time of 4 h. The prepared TiO₂ nanorods were annealed at the temperatures of 550 °C and 600 °C for 3 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that obtained nanorods exhibit pure rutile phase. From scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, it was found that increasing temperature led to decreasing the diameter of the nanorods. In addition to these, formation of hierarchical type TiO₂ nanorods was also observed at 130 °C. UV-visible spectra analysis was carried out to find the influence of diameter of the nanorods on its optical properties. The plausible mechanism of the growth process is also discussed.