“…Among the various photocatalytic materials that have been used, most attention has focused on titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) as a photocatalystin diverse areas ranging from water and air treatment to self-cleaning surfaces.Nanoparticles have been prepared by many methods such as Langmuir-Blodgett filmsYi et al [7], vesiclesYoun et al [8]and reverse microemulsionsFendler et al [8].The chemical and physical properties exhibited by these materials depend,amongothers,on both the composition and the degree of homogeneity.Therefore, different synthesis strategies have been developed Toba et al [9], Gao et al [10].such as co-precipitation,flame hydrolysis, impregnation,chemicalvapourdeposition,etc.The sol-gel route has demonstrated a high potential for controlling the bulk and surface properties of the oxides (Ward et al [11],Liu et al [12], Schraml-Marth et al [13]). Depending on the drying conditions the binary oxides could be obtained as aerogels, either by supercritical drying Pajonk et al [14], Dusi et al [15],or by silanization of the material previously to a conventional drying Sotelo et al [16].Additionally, non-hydrolytic sol-gel routes have been also reported in the literatureHay et al [17].…”