Applications and Future Trends in Mesoporous Materials

Mesoporous materials have attracted a wide interest in the scientific community due to its exceptional physical and chemical properties. Typically these materials have large specific surface area with pore size ranging between 2 and 50 nm. The interconnected and ordered pores present in these materials provide an excellent access and diffusion pathways for various atomic species. Further, by functionalization it is possible to tune the surface chemistry of these materials. All these unique properties makes them exceptional materials for various frontier applications. In this chapter some of the major applications of these mesoporous materials such as in energy conversion and storage, filtration, catalysis, carbon capture, optics and drug delivery are discussed. Finally, future trends in the development of these materials towards various applications are summarized.