TEM study on the formation mechanism of sodium titanate nanotubes

摘要

The formation mechanism of sodium titanate nanotubes via the morphological variation in particle-nanotube transition was investigated by means of TEM. The results show that the formation of sodium titanate nanotubes is carried out by self-assembling of dissolved fragments, the intermediate of TiO2 reacted with NaOH. The formation process occurs spontaneously in concentrated NaOH solution. After reacting for 20 h, the inside diameters of nanotubes range from 3.9 to 6.8 nm and some straight nanotubes form bundles with hundreds of nanometers long.