A novel method to prepare porous materials using gel particles as template is reported. Pores containing phase change capsules are introduced into plaster board through this one step template method. The change of water existing in the gel particles into crystal water of gypsum (CaSO4) plays an important role on the formation of the pores. The density of these porous plaster board is about 0.6 g/cm(3) which is much lower than that of the pure plaster board (1.1 g/cm(3)). The resulted plaster board also showed excellent thermal preservation and high heat storage ability. When the plaster boards are heated by an iodine-tungsten lamp with power of 1000 w for one hour, the temperature of the back of the plaster board containing only pores without phase change capsules was 10 degrees C lower than that of the pure one. The temperature of the plaster board containing pores with phase change capsules was not only 25 degrees C lower than that of the pure one but also had a temperature plateau around 38 degrees C. The results suggest an easy way to prepare high performance thermal insulating plaster boards valuable for building applications. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.