Sol-gel chemistry: from self-assembly to complex materials

"Sol–gel appears nowadays as a mature branch. of chemistry with much of the basic research that has been. exploited for the most part. The possibility of combining. sol–gel with supramolecular chemistry has, however, open. almost endless possibilities of new applications of sol–gel. processes which have therefore become a fundamental tool. of nano-chemistry. We have briefly reviewed the work. done in our laboratory in this field, from self-assembly,. with a description of the analytical in situ techniques that. we have developed up to the design of nanomaterials of. increasing complexity."