Ordered mesoporous materials prepared by the template route have attracted increasing interest from the electrochemists community due to their plenty of unique properties and functionalities that can be effectively exploited in electrochemical devices. This review will cover the whole field of the intersection between electrochemistry and ordered mesoporous materials. The latter are either electronically insulating (silica and some other metal oxides, as well as silica-based organic–inorganic hybrid materials), semi-conducting (metal oxides), or conducting (metals, carbons). The three main intersection areas are: (1) the development/use of electrochemical methods to characterize the properties of mesoporous materials (i.e., charge and mass transfer processes); (2) the generation of mesostructured solids by electro-assisted deposition using appropriate templates; and (3) the application of these novel materials for electrochemical purposes. The most common devices to date are based on a bulk composite or thin film configuration and the resulting electrodes modified with such mesoporous materials have been successfully applied in various fields, including mainly electrochemical sensing and biosensing as well as energy conversion and storage (620 references).

A review with ca. 400 references is provided dealing with the use of mesoporous silica and organically-modified silica-based materials for removal of inorganic and organic pollutants from aqueous solutions. After having briefly discussed the interest of functionalized mesoporous silica for environmental remediation purposes, the various synthetic methods to prepare such nanoengineered adsorbents are described. Then, their application to the removal of heavy metal species, toxic anions, radionuclides, and a wide range of organic pollutants is presented in a comprehensive way with the help of extensive tables and some illustrating figures.

Recent years have faced stimulating developments in the functionalization of electrode surfaces with biological materials, notably due to the significant input of nanosciences and nanotechnology. In this review (over 450 references), we are discussing the interest of both nano-objects (metal nanoparticles and quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and graphene) and nano-engineered and/or nanostructured materials (template-based materials, advanced organic polymers) for the rational design of bio-functionalized electrodes and related (bio)sensing systems. The attractiveness of such nanomaterials relies not only on their ability to act as effective immobilization matrices, which are, e.g., likely to enhance the long-term stability of bioelectrochemical devices, but also on their intrinsic and unique features (large surface areas, electrocatalytic properties, controlled morphology and structure, possible use as labels) that can be advantageously combined with the functioning of biomolecules, thus contributing to improved bioelectrode performance in terms of sensitivity and selectivity (enzymatic biosensors, DNA sensors, immunosensors and cell sensors) or power (biofuel cells).

The implications of organically-modified silica-based materials in electrochemical science is reviewed along with some selected recent trends in the field of functionalized and sol–gel silica electrochemistry. These recent trends include the electro-assisted generation of organosilica films on solid electrode surfaces, the preparation and applications of sol–gel derived composite (carbon, gold, nanotubes) electrodes, the electrochemical characterisation of mass transfer reactions in porous functionalized silicas, solid-state electrochemistry and gas sensors involving sol–gel materials, imprinted functionalized silica, and the electrochemical characterisation and applications of ordered mesoporous organosilicas.