Polymers of intrinsic microporosity as high temperature templates for the formation of nanofibrous oxidesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional scanning electron microscopy data and EDX data. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra15131g

The highly rigid molecular structure of Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIM) - associated with a high thermolysis threshold - combined with the possibility to fill intrinsic micropores allows the direct "one-step" templated conversion of metal nitrates into nano-structured metal oxides. This is demonstrated here with PIM-EA-TB and with PIM-1 for the conversion of Pr(NO 3 ) 3 to Pr 6 O 11 . Highly rigid polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) offer novel high temperature template materials for the formation of nano-structured metal oxides, here for nanostructured Pr 6 O 11 .