A mesoporous TiO2 nanosheet-based hierarchical tubular superstructure (MTNHTS) has been successfully synthesized on a large scale via a facial solvothermal approach. The obtained TiO2 tubular structure is 1-2 mu m in diameter and 6-10 mu m in length, consisting of interleaving mesoporous nanosheets with a thickness of about 24 nm. Investigation on time-dependent product and the effects of solvent constitution on the composition and morphology of product demonstrated that the growth of hierarchically tubular structure undergoes two intermediate products, hydroxylated titanium oxide and titanium glycerolate, the latter was converted into anatase TiO2 through calcination. When evaluated as a photocatalyst for degradation of methylene blue under UV light irradiation, the obtained MTNHTS manifest enhanced photocatalytic activity whose apparent rate constant for degrading methylene blue was up to 0.315 min(-1), almost 1.3 times higher than that of Degussa P25. Furthermore, in the case of Li-ion batteries application, the MTNHTS show better performance as anode materials with high specific capacity and excellent cycling stability, superior to Degussa P25. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.