In strictu sensu an organic–inorganic hybrid material is a combination of organic and inorganic components related by chemical bonds. This concept includes a large variety of materials that can be classified accordingly to the:

Among the molecular hybrids linked by covalent bonds, of particular interest are those derived from sol–gel chemistry routes, because they are the most commonly used hybrids and therefore will occupy a large part of this chapter. The mixing of organic and inorganic components may bring special features to the resulting material in such a way that:

The characteristics of organic–inorganic hybrids can be very useful in...