Carbon-coated Ti4O7 nanorods were synthesized using a carbothermal reduction reaction. With microwave processing, single-phase Ti4O7 was obtained at 975 degrees C after a holding time of 30 min, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) results confirmed that no grain growth occurred. The transmission electron image confirmed that the Ti4O7 nanorods were coated with carbon. In contrast, Ti4O7 and a trace amount of Ti5O9 phase were observed after heating in a tube furnace at 975 degrees C with a 30 min hold time. In addition, nanorod grain growth clearly occurred, and no carbon coating was observed after heating in the tube furnace heating. These results suggest that polyvinylpyrrolidone-derived carbon was uniformly coated on pristine TiO2 nanorods via microwave processing, which can achieve about 70 times faster heating than tube-furnace heating. Therefore, the uniform carbon coating inhibited the grain growth of reduced titania at a high temperature. In conclusion, we successfully prepared carbon-coated Ti4O7 nanorods that retained the morphology of the pristine TiO2 nanorods.