Fundamental Principles of Sol-gel Technology

P Jonathan Bradley on April 14, 2000 The author has presented an extremely well structured introduction to the field of sol-gel technology - an otherwise poorly documented area of physical chemistry. The approach has been one of considering the applications of sol-gel rather than the chemistry behind it, although the early chapters do provide sufficient information for a non-chemist. The real forte of this book is its readability. The writing style is easy enough to make it comfortable bed-time reading (unusual for physical chemistry texts :) ). On the downside, the illustrations are poor, though well intentioned. And the author fails to convey the full range of current applications for the technology. Biochemical aspects are well-covered and I found myself wishing that other areas were receiving the same treatment. However, this does not detract from the fact that the book is an excellent read. (Amazon customer review)