A novel, innocuous method which utilizes carbon dioxide to fabricate optically transparent nanocellular polymeric materials using a fluorinated block copolymer as the template is reported. The CO2-soluble fluorinated blocks effectively localize CO2 in the nanoscopic domains. At 0 degreesC, with slow depressurization, the block copolymer exhibits CO2-pressure-tunable nanocells of diameters between 10-30 nm, number densities of similar to10(16) cells cm(-3), and porosities of up to 50% (see Figure).