Method for making metal oxides

A method of producing porous complex oxides comprising a metal oxide phase containing two or more metallic elements homogeneously distributed in the oxide phase, at least one of the metals selected from a non-refractory metal selected from metals of atomic number 3, 4, 11, 19-21, 23-32, 37-39, 41-51, 55-84 and 87-103, the method including forming a mixture of:

• a) precursor elements suitable to produce the complex oxide;
• or
• b) one or more precursor elements suitable to produce particles of the complex oxide and one or more metal oxide particles;
• wherein at least one of the precursor elements is present in the form of a solution;
• and
• c) a solid particulate carbon-containing pore-forming material selected to provide pore sizes in the range of approximately 7 nm to 250 nm, said solid particulate carbon-containing pore-forming material being dispersed throughout the mixture;
• and
• d) one or more surfactants present in an amount sufficient to form micelles;
• and heating the mixture to
• (i) form the porous complex oxide in which two or more of the precursor elements from (a) above or one or more of the precursor elements and one or more of the metals in the metal oxide particles from (b) above are incorporated into a phase of the complex metal oxide and the complex metal oxide has grain sizes in the range of about 1 nm to 150 nm;
• and
• (ii) remove the pore-forming material under conditions such that the porous structure and composition of the complex oxide is substantially preserved to obtain a complex metal oxide having a porous structure including pores sized in the range of approximately 7 nm to 250 nm.