Controlled Synthesis and Processing of Ceramic Oxides—A Molecular Approach

Sol-gel processing of ceramic oxides is understood in a number of ways by different scientific communities. For inorganic chemists, solgel synthesis is merely a synthesis route of particles whose structure is of key interest. Minor attention is paid to the intermediates leading to the formation of the particles. On the other hand, for analytical chemists the interest is directed to the complexes formed during the hydrolysis and condensation of mostly metal cations in aqueous solutions. For colloid chemists, who define the sol as a suspension of particles of colloidal dimensions (1 nm-1 mm), the aim is to investigate the conditions for the stabilization (or aggregation) of the sol. Recently, special attention has been paid to particles that have particular optical, electrical, and chemical properties. These nanoparticles are special in that they possess a larger fraction of atoms=molecules in the surface layer than in the bulk and fall within the 1-10 (50) nm range. Sol manufacture then simply means the processing of nanosized particles without reference to the details of the synthesis route or the intermediates.