Some important, fairly new uses of colloidal silica/silica sol

Book chapter, 2005

Dilute silica sols were prepared and studied over 70 years ago. Their uses as binders in catalyst preparation, as glazes on ceramics, as coatings on concrete and plaster of Paris, as agents for treating paper and textiles, and several other applications were investigated [1]. These early silica sols contained less than 10% by weight of silica, were fairly unstable and did not have reproducible proper- ties. Iler [2] predicted that colloidal silica would not be accepted for wide commercial use before these short- comings were remedied.