Sponge-like Architectured Macroporous Oxides Tempiating by Egg White

In this paper, a novel protein templating approach to synthesize macroporous materials has been demonstrated. Sponge-like architectured macroporous oxides (silica, titania) have been firstly synthesized by using low-cost commercial egg white protein as the template. The pore size of the three dimensional macroporous materials can be tuned from 50 to 400 nm by adding different surfactant. The morphology and the channel of the macroporous materials can also be controlled by the surfactant. The formation of macroporous material is resulted from the phase separation between the protein and inorganic sol.