Templating of inorganic and organic solids with electrospun fibres for the synthesis of large-pore materials with near-cylindrical pores

The use of silica, polystyrene and poly(L-lactide) electrospun fibres as templates to produce inorganic and organic macroporous materials is demonstrated. Mercury intrusion-extrusion porosimetry and nitrogen adsorption were employed to characterise the porous structure of fibre-templated, carbon, alginate, and silica materials. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that negatives of "spaghetti pile" like deposits of non-woven electrospun fibres constitute the random macropore network of these materials.