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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Interface between sol-gel process and soft matter appears recently as a very nice tool to generate new materials with complex textures or/and structures extended at various length scales. In this general context, hierarchical inorganic porous monoliths have been prepared using a double templates procedure, namely concentrated emulsion as a macroscopic pattern and mesoscopic micellar templates. The texture of those monoliths can vary dramatically playing either with the oil volume fraction, synthetic pH conditions or the emulsification process. These materials show interconnected macroporosity associated to vermicular-type mesostructuration with an average mesoporosity of 800 m2/g associated to bulk density as low as 0.08 g cm-3 which is comparable to values obtained for silica aerogel.