Porous chromium carbide structures have been synthesized through reactive sintering of chromium oxides in carbonaceous reducing environments. The process is simple and can be used to fabricate large size porous structures. It has been characterized that the pores in the porous structure are open in nature and the size of pores in the same porous structure can be controlled within a narrow range. Depending on the processing condition, the porosity in the porous structure was measured to be from 50% to 78%, and pore size varied from 0.5 mu m to 3 mu m. It has been determined that the porosity in the process was formed primarily due to volume reduction caused by phase transformation from chromium oxides to chromium carbides. It is believed that similar process can be used to form porous structures of other materials as long as a reactive sintering can occur and is accompanied with volume reduction. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.