Nanocasting pathways to create ordered mesoporous solids

This account describes the synthesis of ordered mesoporous solids via a nanocasting pathway, using porous silica and porous carbon as hard templates. Non-siliceous mesoporous materials with new compositions, controllable structure, and specific functionality can be created. Structure replication on the length scale of nanometers allows to manipulate materials properties in a controlled manner and opens the road to highly porous solids with interesting application perspectives. (c) 2005 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.