Abstract
Hierarchically porous materials with large pores in the micrometer range and small pores in the nanometer range, where the large pores facilitate mass transport and the small pores supply numerous active sites, show superiority to materials with unimodal pores in the fields of separation and adsorption. Among all the methods used to prepare hierarchically porous monoliths (HPMs), the sol–gel process accompanied by spinodal decomposition (or phase separation) shows its advantages such as facile method, no template, precise structural control, good reproducibility, and availability for various kinds of materials. This review focuses on the specific process to prepare various types of HPMs including silica, metal oxides, metal phosphates, and metal–organic hybrids, via the sol–gel process accompanied by spinodal decomposition. The HPMs composed of organic polymer and their carbonized derivatives prepared by polymerization-induced phase separation are also covered in this review as an example of similar morphological formation in purely organic crosslinking reactions. This review directs the most attention to the preparation of monolithic gels (sol–gel process) and the control of macroporous structure (phase separation).
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