Growth Morphologies of Nanostructured Rutile TiO2

The morphological and structural characteristics of nanostructure rutile TiO₂ were investigated by using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron diffraction, conventional and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. As a product of the precursor template of hydrogen titanate nanofibers, rutile could exhibit forms like tree, sheaf, or bundle. Both the branch and trunk of tree-like rutile have the same growth axis of [001]. The sheaf-like rutile forms while it grows along both [001] and [ $ 00bar{1} $ ] directions. The bundle-like rutile grows along only one [001] direction. Tree-like morphology of nanocrystals rutile is revealed to be controlled by (101) twin structure. Twin formation is a possible mechanism to decrease the density of defects and reduce the system energy as the crystal grows.