“…Despite all the research over the last three decades in the field of sol-gel synthesis and applications [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and technical and medical uses of porphyrins [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], the development of new materials exhibiting novel biological, optical and sensing properties [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] remains a great challenge. Combining the properties of silica as host with the special properties of the porphyrins has proved to be of great interest [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”