The sol-gel technology is regarded as the fastest growing domain of contemporary chemistry. This process can be used to prepare organic and inorganic materials, as well as organically and inorganically modified materials, which are being studied for diverse range of applications.

Characteristic sol-gel process implicate metal alkoxide precursors M(OR)_z when R is an alkyl group (e.g. R = Me, Et); it can be represented by the following overall chemical equation:

Si(OR)₄ + (4-x)H₂0 → SiO_x(OH)_4-2x + 4ROH

Reaction takes place through hydrolysis and condensation of monomeric alkoxysilanes.

Sol-gel process depends on several factors: pH, presence of admixture, mixing rate or water to precursor ratio etc, which determinate various chemical and physical features of received materials. For example pH and drying conditions affect structure and porosity of materials based on sol-gel process.

One of the most important applications of sol-gel technology is the production of coatings. It is possible to apply coatings based on sol-gel process with almost all types of chemical compositions, which can be adaptated not only as automotive clearcoats, hard coats for plastics or anit-graffiti coatings, but also as new materials for bioengineering.

The results of preliminary investigations of coating materials for sophisticated applications will be presented focusing on the effect of sol-gel process factors on characteristic of surface layer of coating materials based on the following methods: Scanning Electron Microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Photon Corelation Spectroscopy.

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