An ultra lightweight carbon microtube material called Aerographite is synthesized by a novel single-step chemical vapor deposition synthesis based on ZnO networks, which is presently the lightest known material with a density smaller than μg/cm(3). Despite its low density, the hierarchical design leads to remarkable mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. The first experiments with Aerographite electrodes confirm its applicability.

Flexible, electrically conducting, high temperature stable ceramics with very high porosities are fabricated from interpenetrated metal oxide nano‐microstructures in a versatile manner in a novel flame transport synthesis approach. The Young's modulus of these networks can be tuned from wool type to rubber like based on the density, type and interconnections of the building blocks. Semiconducting behavior allows multifunctional applications like the electrical readout of the mechanical history.

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Metal oxide nano-microstructures are applied in photocatalytic surfaces, sensors or biomedical engineering, proving the versatile utilization of nanotechnology. However, more complex or interconnected nano-microstructures are still seldomly met in practical applications, although they are of higher interest, due to enhanced structural, electronic and piezoelectric properties, as well as several complex biomedical effects, like antiviral characteristics. Here we attempt to present an overview of the novel, facile and cost-efficient flame transport synthesis (FTS) which allows controlled growth of different nano-microstructures and their interconnected networks in a scalable process. Various morphologies of nano-microstructures synthesized by FTS and its variants are demonstrated. These nano-microstructures have shown potential applications in different fields and the most relevant are reviewed here. Fabrication, growth mechanisms and properties of such large and highly porous three-dimensional (3D) interconnected networks of metal oxides (ZnO, SnO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 ) nano-microstructures including carbon based aerographite material using FTS approaches are discussed along with their potential applications.