Preparation and structure analysis of titanium oxide nanotubes

Abstract

Well crystallized nanoscale tubular materials have been synthesized via the reaction of TiO2 crystals of either anatase or rutile phase and NaOH aqueous solution. The atomic structure of the synthesized tubular material is imaged by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and the composition of individual tubular structures is determined using selected area energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Our results show that the tubular materials are well crystallized tubes with an average diameter of about 9 nm and little dispersion, and are composed of mainly titanium and oxygen. The atomic ratio of O/Ti is found, however, to vary from tube to tube. Detailed electron and x-ray diffraction studies show that the structure of our titanium oxide nanotubes do not agree with those made of TiO2 crystals with either anatase or rutile phase. HRTEM observations revealed that the titanium oxide nanotubes usually have multiple shells, in analogy with multiwalled carbon nanotubes, but the shell spacing is about 0.75 nm which is much larger than that of the carbon nanotube, and the atomic structures of different shells are well correlated.