This is the first book to address the hot topic of functional silica gels and their applications. Originally used mainly in chromatography, specialized silica gels have evolved into crucially important functional nanomaterials suitable for use in, amongst other things, chemical synthesis, analysis, purification, surface protection and drug release.
The book demonstrates how chemists synthesize, from the bottom-up, tailor-made (nano) materials of immense practical importance spanning the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, engineering, biology and medicine. It also shows how the versatility of silica gels results from their physical and chemical properties. An updated outlook on new commercial products, and the companies which make them, greatly adds relevance and practical value to the text.
