Skeletons in the beaker: Synthetic hierarchical inorganic materials*

Hierarchical inorganic materials chemistry has been taken a step further by the “molecular beaker synthesis” of elaborately structured aluminophosphate morphologies. A unified surfactant‐based cellular‐type vesicle templating model is reported that is able to explain the origin of the macroscopic forms and surface patterns of synthetic inorganic‐organic composite ultrastructures, many of which resemble those found in natural siliceous biomineralized structures.