Tubular inorganic nanostructures are high aspect ratio nanomaterials possessing few nanometer wide inner channels. We report on our studies about engineering the chemical composition, morphology and pore size of carbon, silica and titania nanotubes as well as of mesoporous silicate MCM-41. The former three systems represent three different classes of inorganic nanotubes, since they feature circular, angular and spiral cross-sections, respectively. Besides being interesting on their own right, some of these systems exhibit superior catalyst support properties as well. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.