Porous Solid Materials and Methods for Fabrication

A method for fabricating a porous solid material comprising a plurality of interconnected wires, the plurality of interconnected wires forming an ordered network comprising a plurality of first wires having a first longitudinal direction and a plurality of second wires having a second longitudinal direction different from the first longitudinal direction, wherein the plurality of first wires and the plurality of second wires are arranged according to a regular pattern with a predetermined average interwire distance between adjacent wires, and wherein the plurality of first wires and the plurality of second wires have a predetermined average wire diameter, wherein the method comprises:

• (a) fabricating a template comprising a plurality of interconnected channels, the fabricating the template comprising:
• (i) performing a first anodization step of a doped valve metal layer at a predetermined anodization voltage, thereby anodizing at least part of the valve metal layer in a thickness direction and thereby forming a porous layer of valve metal oxide comprising a plurality of interconnected channels, the plurality of interconnected channels forming an ordered network comprising a plurality of first channels having the first longitudinal direction and a plurality of second channels having the second longitudinal direction, wherein the plurality of first channels and the plurality of second channels are arranged according to a regular pattern having the predetermined average interwire distance between adjacent channels, and wherein the plurality of first channels and the plurality of second channels have an average channel width, each channel having channel walls, the plurality of first channels having a channel bottom, the channel bottoms being coated with a first insulating metal oxide barrier layer as a result of the first anodization step;
• (ii) performing a protective treatment of the porous layer of valve metal oxide, thereby inducing hydrophobic surfaces to the channel walls and channel bottoms;
• (iii) performing a second anodization step at the predetermined anodization voltage after the protective treatment, thereby substantially removing the first insulating metal oxide barrier layer from the channel bottoms, inducing anodization only at the bottoms of the plurality of first channels and creating a second insulating metal oxide barrier layer at the channel bottoms;
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• (iv) performing an etching step in an etching solution, thereby removing the second insulating metal oxide barrier layer from the channel bottoms without thereby substantially increasing the average channel width;
• (b) afterward depositing a solid material within the plurality of interconnected channels of the template;
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• (c) afterward removing the template to thereby obtain the porous solid material.