A communication by Dong-Po Song, Aditi Naik, Shengkai Li, Alexander Ribbe and James J. Watkins* published in JACS.

The Watkins group has reported a simple strategy for the creation of large-area nanoporous hybrid films of silica or carbon, and functional additives such as gold on polyethylene terephthalate via photothermal processing. This method enables the selective heating and conversion of light-absorbing precursor films on low-temperature substrates using sub-millisecond light pulses generated by a xenon flash lamp. This rapid and large-area process for the fabrication of porous structures is compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing for the fabrication of flexible devices.