Macroporous materials with uniform pores by emulsion templating

A method was developed for the production of macroporous oxide materials by using the droplets of a nonaoueous emulsion as the templates around which material is deposited through a sol-gel process. Moreover, uniform pores Ganged in regular arrays can be obtained by stat?ing with-an emulsion of uniform droulets. These droulets first self-assemble into a colloidal crvstal after which gelation of the suspending sol-gel m&me captures the ordered structure. After drying and calcination pellets are obtained which contain ordered arrays of spherical pores left behind by the emulsion droplets. The method can be used to make uniform pores in the range from 0.05-5 micrometers in many different materials. We demonstrate the process for titania, silica, and zirconia