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To further understand the effect of structural defects on the electrochemical and photocatalytic properties of TiO₂, two synthetic approaches based on hydrothermal synthesis and post-synthetic chemical reduction to achieve oxygen defectimplantation were developed herein. These approaches led to the formation of TiO₂ nanorods with uniformly distributed defects in either the bulk or on the surface, or the combination of both, in the formed TiO₂ nanorods (NRs). Both approaches utilize unique TiN nanoparticles as the reaction precursor. Electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses indicate that all the studied samples exhibit similar morphology and similar specific surface areas. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) data confirm the existence of oxygen defects (VO). The photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ with different types of implanted VO …