We report the fabrication of high porous cellular material (HPCM) by a combination of spray-solution combustion synthesis (SSCS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) approaches. It was shown that unique morphological features of the hollow nickel nanostructured spheres, produced by solution combustion, permit rapid (15 min) low temperature (763 K) sintering of the HPCM with porosity of 93%, which possesses high mechanical properties and thermal conductivity 70 times less than that for bulk nickel. Display omitted •Combination of SSCS and SPS is a novel approach for fabrication of materials.•Unique morphological features of nanostructured hollow metallic spheres.•Extremely high porous cellular materials with high mechanical properties.•Thermal conductivity of produced foams 70 times smaller than that for balk Ni.