Abstract

Hybrid organic–inorganic materials constitute a fast-growing field that has already led to a very large variety of materials and applications. These nanocomposite materials abound both with organic or inorganic matrices and represent oportunities to design eclectic materials by taking advantage of the best properties of their components. But the hybrid concept can even go beyond this approach by creating materials with novel structures or supramolecular architectures, with synergic properties, or even with activities impossible for the isolated components.

This article is a general review of the field, discussing the different categories of materials according to their chemical nature and their applications as structural or functional materials. A variety of hybrids with organic matrics (most commonly polymers) are distinguished from these in which the dominating phase is inorganic (polymeric or extended in nature). To the category of silicon-based hybrids that predominated in the early literature a larger variety of hybrids has followed which includes, among many others, inorganic molecular species intergrated in organic polymers, perovskites built with organic and inorganic building blocks or polymer-inserted inorganic phases. All of them are categorized and discussed with emphasis on their many different applications and commercial developments.