A simple route to obtain TiO₂ nanowires by the sol-gel method

In this work, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanowires were synthesized by the sol-gel method, without using any kind of templates, instead of that acetic acid was used as morphological modifier. In order to control crystalline phases and crystal size, TiO₂ was calcinated at 400, 500 and 600 °C during 1 h. The resulting morphology was nanowires, which diameter was maintained constant after calcination at different temperature (about 76 nm). Moreover, crystalline phases in order of predominance were anatase, anatase-rutile and rutile-anatase at 400, 500 and 600 °C, respectively. Additionally, the crystallite size increases with respect to temperature from 13 to 75 nm.