SEM, TEM, and HRTEM images of the sample NMTNR-4-500 are shown in

Figure  4. It can be observed that the sample is made up of several nanorods with an average length of ca. 1.5 μm and a cross section diameter of ca. 80 nm. As shown in Figure  4b,c, the N-doped TiO2 nanorods are mesoporous structure. The corresponding HRTEM image is displayed in Figure  4d which proves the coexistence of mesoporous structure and a high crystallinity. The pore diameter is in the range of 5 to 10 nm, which is consistent with the N2 adsorption-desorption results (Table  1). The spacing of two neighboring parallel fringes is around 0.35 nm, which matches well with the d spacing between adjacent (101) crystallographic planes of anatase phase [16]. PF01367338 Figure 4 SEM (a, b), TEM (c), and HRTEM (d) images of NMTNR-4-500. Figure  5 shows a schematic illustration for the forming process Alvocidib of N-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanorods. This is PCI-32765 purchase based on the SEM observations

of the N-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanorods at different periods and the existing mechanism of crystal growth [17]. In the experiment, vaporized molecules were transported with air into the reaction flask, resulting in the hydrolysis reaction of TBOT in the gas–liquid interface. Colloidal nucleus was formed in this process (Figure  5a). In addition, the rotation and the ball milling could improve the dispersion of colloidal nucleus in three-dimensional space. The colloidal nucleus rearranged to find a suitable place to reduce the surface energy (Figure  5b). Finally, buy Erlotinib TiO2 aggregates with rod-like structures were obtained (Figure  5c). When being annealed at 500°C, the ammonium nitrate attached on the surface of colloidal nucleus (see Additional file 1: Figure S1) was decomposed into N2, NO2, and H2O, which may result in the formation of mesoporous structure. At the same time, N2 and NO2 may provide the N source of as-prepared N-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanorods (Figure  5d). Figure 5 The schematic illustration for N-doped mesoporous TiO 2 nanorods. (a) Formation of colloidal nucleus. (b) Rearrangement of colloidal

nucleus. (c) Formation of rod-like structures. (d) Formation of N-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanorods. The UV–vis absorbance spectra of as-prepared samples were shown in Figure  6a. It can be seen that the N-doped mesoporous TiO2 nanorods present a significant absorption in the visible region between 400 and 550 nm, which is the typical absorption feature of nitrogen-doped TiO2[18, 19]. Kubelka-Munk function was used to estimate the band gap energy of the prepared samples. As TiO2 is an indirect transition semiconductor, plots of the (αhν)1/2 vs the energy of absorbed light afford the band gaps of the different samples (Figure  6b). The band gaps optically obtained in such a way were presented in Table  1.