Anisotropic colloidal templating of 3D ceramic, semiconducting, metallic, and polymeric architectures.

3D-porous anisotropic solids are fabricated by using horizontally and vertically aligned assemblies of silica rods with a length of ca. 2 μm and a diameter of 500 nm as templates. Templated materials include examples from metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and polymers, Ni, Si, HfO2, and PMMA, respectively. By varying the infilling conditions, the detailed mesoscale structure and degree of anisotropy can be controlled.