Facile and controllable preparation of TiO2 is of prime importance to elaborately tailor and then fully exploit its intriguing functionalities in energy storage, catalysis and environmental remediation. Herein, a solvothermal method combined with post annealing is conducted, in which the hydrolysis of tetrabutyl titanate is controlled by the in-situ generated water during solvothermal treatment. By controlling synthetic conditions (i.e. reactant ratio, solvothermal temperature and reaction time), we manage to tailor the morphologies of TiO2. Specially, three typical structures (nanoparticle, nanoneedle and nanorod) are studied to reveal the growth mechanism and the effects of the synthesis conditions. Nanoneedle-structured TiO2 shows higher specific capacity and enhanced cycle stability as anode material for lithium ion batteries. (C)2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.