Materials Synthesis by Sol-Gel Technology

Dear Colleagues,

Sol gel processing has emerged among bottom-up techniques and in the last four decades has won a wide acceptance among academic and industrial communities due to its straightforward, scalable, versatile, easily controllable, time and energy saving synthesis.

Sol gel encompass a wide variety of advanced materials, from inorganic to hybrid materials, in a large spectrum of dimensional architectures (including nanoparticles and powders, fibers, thin films, membranes, monoliths and nanocomposites) with an impressive range of applications, namely as optical fibers and wave guides, optical or protective coatings, catalysts or catalyst supports, adsorbents, chemical/mechanical/bio sensors, bioglass, bioceramics, efficient gene/drug delivery/control-release systems or in chromatography, separation, biotechnology, energy conservation, cultural heritage restoration, environmental remediation, cosmetic, pharmacy and medicine. For molecular entrapment or microencapsulation of organic substances, as an example, sol-gel matrixes offer unique scalable property combinations due to the remarkable surface-to-volume ratio of the nanofiller and/or its large specific surface area. Mild synthesis conditions and high synthesis homogeneity (controlled at the molecular level and leading to large products purity) along with the fine control of materials’ structure, composition, and porosity are just some of sol-gel advantages, which led to its historical use even before the complete understanding of its basic scientific principles.

The sol gel is based on colloidal chemistry, and involves the preparation of a colloidal suspension (sol), the gelation of the sol and the removal of the liquid existing in fine interconnected channels within the gel (solvent, catalyst and eventually reactants in excess). Particles and polymeric sols are two via being the hydrolytic policondensation of liquid precursors (such as silicon alkoxides) the most common. Biomimetic and templated are two other sol-gel syntheses possibilities. Novel products and new potential applications of sol-gel technology are continuously emerging and new society areas are being touched by sol-gel technology.

It is a great honor and pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Sol Gel Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Assist. Prof. Maria Clara Gonçalves
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sol gel processing
• colloidal chemistry
• sol-gel matrixes