The family of fullerene molecules is composed of a large variety of compoun
ds that have been synthesized following the discovery of C-60 in 1985. The
chemistry of fullerenes, developed in these last years, has allowed designi
ng the properties of this family of molecules for specific applications in
materials science. One of the main tasks to build up solid state devices ba
sed on fullerenes is the synthesis of materials doped with a highly dispers
ed and homogeneous distribution of fullerenes. Many of the peculiar photoph
ysical properties, such as the reverse saturable absorption used to obtain
a solid state optical limiter, are in fact lost in the aggregates of fuller
enes. Sol-gel processing allows preparing inorganic oxides and hybrid organ
ic-inorganic materials at low temperatures and presents an interesting alte
rnative to organic polymers to entrap molecules of the fullerene family in
a solid matrix. Porous inorganic solids and aerogels are also important cla
sses of materials that can be synthesized via sol-gel and can act as hosts
of fullerenes. In the present article we have reviewed the main achievement
s of sol-gel processing of fullerene based nanocomposite materials.