Abstract: A method for producing a porous metallic structure comprising a metal element from a metal salt comprising a cation part and an anion part, comprising the steps of: providing a volume of metal salt; exposing the volume of metal salt in an atmosphere comprising a reduction gas at a temperature below a melting temperature of the metal element, leading to converting the volume of metal salt into the porous metallic structure by removing the anion part using the reduction gas; wherein the porous metallic structure has a pore size between 1 nanometer and 50 micrometer, and a ligament size between 1 nanometer and 50 micrometer; wherein the ligament size is controlled by the temperature during the exposing.