Transparent K2OTiO2P2O5SiO2 monolithic gels and inorganic amorphous solids through incomplete hydrolysis

Sol–gel derived transparent glasses are of technological interest because of its precisely controlled composition for multicomponent glasses at low temperature processing. The present work demonstrates a new and simple methodology for preparing transparent multicomponent oxide gels by incomplete hydrolysis of alkoxides. Through this processing, a small quantity of organic agencies resulted from incomplete hydrolysis of alkoxides self-disperses in inorganic oxide network, and thus control the formation of the monolith gel free of cracks. Specially, K2OTiO2P2O5SiO2 gel monoliths have been synthesized through this route. The gels transformed into transparent K2OTiO2P2O5SiO2 inorganic amorphous solids after heat treatment above 450 °C. This approach could be applied to many other multicomponent oxides.