ABSTRACT
Organic–inorganic hybrid materials can be defined as nanocomposites comprising organic and inorganic components intimately mixed over length scales ranging from a few Angstroms to a few tens of nanometers. Inorganic oxides with particle size under 100 nm represent a promising group of fillers for the top-down approach. The extensive surface area that characterizes the nanometric size inorganic particles is the reason for their strong tendency of aggregation. Mild conditions characterize chemical method, which becomes strategic when organic materials are involved in the process permitting to avoid their thermal degradation. Sangermano and coworkers deeply investigated the preparation and characterization of organic–inorganic hybrid coatings obtained by a dual-curing process combining the sol–gel reaction with the epoxy ultraviolet-induced polymerization technique. Dual cross-linking of the inorganic and organic sites through a sol–gel and radical photo-polymerization process was also investigated by the research group coordinated by Croutxe-Barghorn.
