Molecular design of novel heterometallic alkoxides as precursors

In view of the advantages of employing heterometallic alkoxides as precurso rs for ceramic materials by the sol-gel process, efforts are being made to develop novel routes for their synthesis and to design single source precur sors suited to the final targeted material. Three such new pathways are bri efly presented in this paper: (i) varying the ratio of constituent metals; (ii) dissolution of metal chlorides in alkoxides of tetravalent metals; and (iii) reactions of acidic protons of metal glycolate derivatives with alko xides of another metal yielding derivatives containing other alkoxometallat es in cationic form.