Polyimide-ceramic hybrid composites by the sol-gel route

A number of polyimides have gained considerable importance as high-performance polymers during the last 2 decades primarily because of their excellent thermal stability and toughness. Some applications, however, require property enhancements and the desired improvements can often be obtained through incorporation of ceramic-like particles such as silica. Such hybrid inorganic-organic composites are frequently obtained using the in situ generation of the dispersed inorganic phase by the sol-gel technique. A number of studies have now been carried out on the preparation and characterization of such hybrid polyimide composites, and the purpose of this review is to give a brief account of the strategies used for this purpose and to describe some of the properties of the resulting composites.