a result of their non conductivity electrodeposition occurs between two electrodes disposed on either end of the porous substrate 19 and the compositionally modulated electrodeposited material 20 is deposited in a bottom up fashion thus the compositionally modulated electrodeposited material fills the entire void structure 25 between the four particles in the embodiment shown in fig1 b the particles 22 are electrically conductive as a result electrodeposition can occur within the conductive porous material to produce layers that are initiated at a particle void interface 120 and grow inwards to fill at least a portion of the interior void structure 25 as illustrated in the embodiments of fig1 and fig1 in addition to electrodepositing into a porous preform the compositionally modulated material 20 can also be deposited on the exterior surfaces 100 of the porous substrate 19 to form a nanolaminate or microlaminate coating for example after the accessible interior void structure 25 is at least partially filled in the case of an electrically conductive porous substrate or substantially filled in the case of a non conductive porous substrate an additional or capping layer 150 can be deposited onto the substrate to seal off the interior porous structure 25 as shown in fig1 in certain embodiments the filling of the accessible interior void structure 25 is tailored such that the thickness of the compositionally modulating electrodeposited material 20 varies throughout the composite 18 for example fig1 illustrates a composite material 18 formed of a porous conductive foam 19 and a ni x fe 1 u2212 x compositionally modulated material 20 the thickness of the compositionally modulated material 20 continuously increases i e thickens from the interior portion 110 of the porous substrate 19 to the exterior 100 to.