A new method to prepare dendritic inorganic nanofibers by using dendritic polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers as templates was described. Dendritic PANI/silica composite nanofibers were synthesized via a self-assembly 501 gel progress. Both the organic and the inorganic phases were co-continuous and interpenetrated each other forming interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) structure. Mesoporous dendritic silica fibers were derived after removing the PANI component from the IPN structured PANI/silica fibers by calcinations. The diameters of the as-prepared silica fibers are tunable since the diameters of the PANI fibers could be controlled easily by changing the synthetic conditions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N-2 adsorption/desorption isotherms experiments were employed to characterize the as-prepared nanomaterials. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.