Hierarchically structured composites and porous materials from soft templates: fabrication and applications

Recent experimental methods for fabrication of hierarchically porous and structured composites are reviewed. The main focus is on recent examples of how different soft templating materials, like emulsions, surfactant phases, breath figures, biological templates, liquid marbles and hydrogel bead slurries can be used to fabricate hierarchically porous materials with tuneable porosity, pore sizes and ratios of different sized pores. Approaches for tuning the physical properties (mechanical, thermal, acoustic) of these innovative materials as well as controlling the porosity, pore size and microstructure are discussed. We also show a variety of applications of hierarchically structured composites in catalysis, energy storage, usage and conversion, removal of pollutants, sensors, biomaterials, smart soaps, and structuring of consumer products.