Borosilicate nanoparticles by sol-gel process

The sol-gel technology has been reported to be used for making innovative products in the field of nanotechnology. The generation of borosilicate nanoparticles has been experimentally done by Martin Gijs, Virendra Kumar Parashar by mixing a non-aqueous Si-B binary oxide solution with water. The experiments have allowed to assess the borosilicate nature of the generated particles, and also to propose a novel formation mechanism via exothermic phase separation. The discovery is reported to have high potential; not only for life science applications, but monodisperse borosilicate particles could be key to the realization of photonic bandgap devices with high optical contrast, contrast agents for ultrasonic microscopy or chemical filtration membranes.