Fig. S1 Schematic representation of the hard templating synthesis of mixed metal oxides using nitrate precursors in the presence of organic solvent under reflux. Prior to the reflux step, the given nitrate salts in stoichiometric proportion are pre-mixed together with the mesoporous silica powder and ground in an agate mortar in the presence of the solvent. Note here that the metal nitrate hydrate salts can be liquefied at lower temperature on the surface of the solid than in the bulk when they

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... are pressed and ground. Therefore, this wet grinding step could serve as a driving force for reducing melting point and thus increasing homogeneity of the mixture. For related references, see Mixed metal oxide replica Nitrate salt precursors + Organic solvent (n-hexane, cyclohexane, nheptane) + Mesoporous silica Reflux at 70-80 o C, 12h Filtration, drying, calcination, removal of silica template with NaOH 2M Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Chemical Communications This journal is