Nanostructured materials, due to their peculiar physical and chemical properties, constitute the new class of functional supports for specific innovative applications. There is a strong competition between synthetic, man-made nanostructured materials and those coming directly from nature: the first ones can be precisely tailored by properly design and fabrication; the second ones are directly available without any cost of production. In this paper, we report our latest achievements on different materials, porous silicon, zinc oxide nanowires and diatomite powders, which belong to these categories.