Sol-gel synthesis of organized matter

In this review, we describe four approaches to the materials synthesis of organized inorganic matter. These include the use of self-assembled organic templates (transcriptive synthesis), cooperative assemblies of templates and building blocks (synergistic synthesis), spatially restricted reaction fields (morphosynthesis), and combinations of these approaches (integrative synthesis) in the area of sol-gel chemistry. We illustrate these strategies, respectively, by describing recent work on the formation of silica-based organized materials, viz. the preparation of ordered silica macrostructures using bacterial templates, template-directed synthesis of ordered hybrid mesophases and organoclays, synthesis of microskeletal frameworks of silica and other metal oxides in compartmentalized liquids, and use of bacterial superstructures in the fabrication of hierarchical macrostructures of mesoscopically ordered silica.