Ordered mesoporous materials have great potential in the field of gas sensing. Today various template-assisted synthesis methods facilitate the preparation of silica (SiO2) as well as numerous metal oxides with well-defined, uniform and regular pore systems. The unique nanostructural properties of such materials are particularly useful for their application as active layers in gas sensors based on various operating principles, such as capacitive, resistive, or optical sensing. This review summarizes the basic aspects of materials synthesis, discusses some structural properties relevant in gas sensing, and gives an overview of the literature on ordered mesoporous gas sensors.

Semiconducting metal oxides are frequently used as gas-sensing materials. Apart from large surface-to-volume ratios, well-defined and uniform pore structures are particularly desired for improved sensing performance. This article addresses the role of some key structural aspects in porous gas sensors, such as grain size and agglomeration, pore size or crack-free film morphology. New synthesis concepts, for example, the utilisation of rigid matrices for structure replication, allow to control these parameters independently, providing the opportunity to create self-diagnostic sensors with enhanced sensitivity and reproducible selectivity.

The synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous In2O3 materials by structure replication from hexagonal mesoporous SBA‐15 silica and cubic KIT‐6 silica is presented. Variation of the synthesis parameters allows for different pore sizes and pore wall thicknesses in the products. The In2O3 samples turn out to be stable up to temperatures between 450 °C and 650 °C; such high thermal stability is necessary for their application as gas sensors. Test measurements show a high sensitivity to methane gas in concentrations relevant for explosion prevention. The sensitivity is shown to be correlated not only with the surface‐to‐volume ratio, but also with the nanoscopic structural properties of the materials.

In recent years, a lot of research activity has focused on the synthesis of new ordered porous materials by utilization of porous matrices as templates. Since the matrices are themselves created by templating procedures, the entire process can be envisaged as “repeated templating”. This review describes recent conceptual developments in the field of structure replication and summarizes the large number of publications on new functional materials prepared by this method.

Periodically ordered mesoporous magnesium oxides were synthesized by utilization of mesoporous CMK-3 carbon as exotemplate. The products exhibit high thermal stability and basic properties, which makes them promising for application in heterogeneous basic catalysis.