Sol-Gel and Precipitation Technologies

The main preparation method for fused silica stiU involves melting technology, but a few other methods are used that involve sol-gel or related routes [2]. For fibers and coatings, sol-gel technology has become more and more important [3-5]. For dispersed materials, pyrolytic and precipitation processes are the dominating technologies for large-scale production [6—7]. To adapt these types of silica to a variety of special applications, various types of chemical smface modifications have been... 

Similarly, phase contacts can also form when the new amorphous phase (organic and inorganic) is precipitated out of a metastable solution in sol-gel transitions, which are common in technology and in nature. 

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