Rutile phase exhibits higher refractive index, good chemical stability, and is becoming a candidate material for the high-temperature separation and catalysis applications. The thermodynamically stable feature of rutile among the three polymorphs of TiO2 usually hinders obtaining nano-sized rutile phase by a conventional calcining way. However, acid peptization of amorphous TiO2 is favourable to the formation of rutile phase. In this work, well-crystallized and well-dispersed rod-like rutile particles with specific surface areas of 49.1 and 35.0 m(2)/g were prepared by hydrothermally treating the acid peptized TiO2 sols at relatively low temperatures of 200degreesC or 240degreesC, respectively.