Organized mesoporous solids: mechanism of formation and use as host materials to prepare carbon and oxide replicas

Since the discovery of organized mesoporous solids by Mobil Oil Co. scientists, numerous patents and papers dealing with the synthesis, mechanism of formation, properties and applications of these exciting solids have been published. In this context, our research group has focused its activities on two research area: (i) the understanding of the formation of silica and alumina mesostructured solids using in situ probing techniques such as fluorescence, and (ii) the development of new synthesis routes such as nanocasting, with the aim of preparing ordered mesoporous carbons and oxides with tailored properties. This short review reports the main results that we have obtained in recent years on these topics. (c) 2004 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.