.
2. Experimental
2.1. Synthesis
Titanate nanofibers were synthesized by hydrothermal
method (150 1C for 72 h) using natural rutile sand
(96.0% TiO2, yielded in Australia, Tiwest Sales Pty.
Ltd., Bentley, Australia) as the starting materials [19,20].
It is worth noting that the cost of natural rutile sand
used in this study is oUS$1/kg, which is 1/50–1/100 of a
commercial rutile or an anatase powder in an ordinary
grade [19].
In a typical synthesis, 300mg of natural rutile sand
(without further purification) brown granules were put