Main-group metal oxides play an important role not only as industrial catalysts and catalyst supports but also as highly efficient adsorbents. They are also successfully used as fillers of polymeric materials and polymer-matrix composites. Their catalytic activity may, however, result in changes in the polymer networks. In particular, selective interactions of the metal oxides with electron donors or acceptors can result in the formation of superbases or superacids reactive enough to remove protons from polymeric structures or to protonize inactive hydrocarbon moieties. To increase the efficiency of polymeric materials used as active fillers, they can be suitably modified by selecting the parameters of their preparation. As a result of progress in nanotechnology, the hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites were lately developed. The metal oxides can be there generated by a sol-gel process simultaneously with the polymerization of respective monomers. The structure and properties of the nanocomposites are determined by the properties of their components.

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