Recent Developments of Molecular Chemistry for Sol–Gel Processes

Abstract This review focuses on some aspects of the chemistry involved in the preparation of oxides by sol–gel methods. This field is opening interesting possibilities for molecular chemistry and among those presented herein are: (1) the use of precursors containing functional groups for the preparation of solids with specific chemical reactivity; (2) the non‐hydrolytic gelation (NHG) route, a new general method for the synthesis of oxides that allows the use of oxygen donors (ethers, alcohols, alkoxides) other than water; the mechanism is based on oxygen–carbon bond cleavage; (3) organic–inorganic hybrid solids containing covalent bonds for which the chemical reactivity is used to demonstrate the presence of substructure in the globally amorphous solid; the substructure greatly depends on the geometry of the organic moiety.