4. Overview of the main synthetic approaches to mesoporous
materials
Most of the synthesis approaches to form inorganic mesoporous
materials in general are based on the use of organic template molecules
that are used in different assembly processes or textural templates,
around which the inorganic precursor can condense [1–6]
(Fig. 4.1). However, also template-free synthesis mechanisms like
the nanobuilding block (NBB) mechanism [4] and other approaches
(e.g. folded sheet nanotubes) [7–9] (Fig. 4.1) have been reported.