Pure anatase TiO 2submicrotubes were successfully fabricated by a template-directed method. Electrospun poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) fibers were used as a soft template for coating with titanium dioxide using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. The deposition was conducted onto a template at 70 °C by using titanium tetraisopropyl oxide (TIP) [Ti(O iPr) 4] and pure water as precursors of TiO 2. Crystalline structure, microstructure, and optical properties of the TiO 2deposited layers before and after calcination were studied in detail. While the as-deposited TiO 2layers onto ES fibers were completely amorphous with thickness of about 60 nm, the TiO 2layers after calcination at 500 °C for 4 h were properly converted into polycrystalline nanostructured TiO 2submicrotubes with high quality of anatase. Thereby, the optical band gap energy was also tuned with a blue shift. As final products the self-supported free-standing mats consisting of pure anatase TiO 2submicrotubes can be easily handled and reclaimed for use in future applications related to catalysis, electronics, photonics, sensing, medicine, and controlled drug release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]