Electrochemistry within template nanosystems

Nanostructuration of electrode surfaces via bottom-up approaches has becoming a well-established area of modern electrochemistry. Among them, the use of templates such as supramolecular assemblies, packed colloidal crystals or hard porous materials, appear to be increasingly attractive to generate nanosystems with ordered pore structure at the meso- or macro-scale. This review highlights the features of both electrically conducting and non-conducting organized materials prepared by a template approach, in connection to their possible application in various fields of electrochemical science. On the basis of selected examples, it discusses the main advantages of templated macro- and mesoporous metals, metal oxides and carbon materials in terms of designing new types of porous electrodes exhibiting high performance. The improvements are related to electroactive surface areas larger than the geometric one, fast mass transport owing to widely open porous structures, and/or good ionic or electronic conductivity.