| Introduction
The sol gel technology by which inorganic
or composite organic-inorganic materials are made at relatively low temperature,
consists of hydrolysis of the constituent molecular precursors and subsequent polycondensation to
glass-like
form. The technology allows incorporation of organic and inorganic additives during the process of formation
of the glassy network at room
temperature.
Based on the sol gel process a large number of sophisticated materials have been prepared
and studied and the corresponding theories
elaborated.
The first successful attempt to incorporate organic dyes and
stabilize them within a sol-gel matrix started in 1984 together with my
colleagues David Avnir and
David
Levy. This was the beginning of number of
studies aiming to understand the fundamental mechanisms, improve the doped
materials and develop successful applications in many industrial areas.
The new materials includes:
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Luminescent solar concentrators, |
|
Electrochromic, photochromic and gasochromic plates for smart windows that change their transparency according to solar irradiation, |
|
Sensors for environmental and biological impurities |
|
Solid lasers tunable in the visible spectral range |
|
Active waveguides, |
|
Quantum semiconductor dots, |
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Materials for linear and nonlinear optics, |
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Complexes of rare earth ions that can be used for diagnostics and biological markers. |
In what follows we summarize the various aspects and findings of the materials prepared in our
group. More in-depth analysis can be found at the original articles
relative to each specific materials case. A list of the
relevant references are given at the
end of this article.
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