Inorganic-organic composites by sol-gel techniques

The sol-gel process opens the possibility of combining inorganic and organic units to new hybrid polymers. Organic units can be used for structural modification of the inorganic backbone, for creating new functions within an inorganic network and for building up organic polymeric chains. The materials show interesting perspectives with respect to structural (surface hardness, strength) and functional properties (e.g. diffusion, photocuring, incorporation of dyes, optical properties). A review over structural and functional properties of sol-gel derived inorganic-organic polymers (ORMOCERs = organically modified ceramics) is given