Silica sol‐gel monolithic materials and their use in a variety of applications

Sol‐gel technology was first discovered in the late 1800s, but it was not until the early 1970s that renewed interest in the technique was generated, when monolithic inorganic gels were formed at low temperature. In this review, we introduce the sol‐gel reaction and the properties of the gel matrix in the first half and the applications of the matrix in the latter half.