5 th International Conference on Science & Technology: Applications in Industry & Education (ICSTIE 2014) 1 Synthesis and characterization of heterocyclic-ORMOCERS composites through Sol-gel process: A Review Syed Salman Shafqat 1 , Sinin Hamdan 1 , Andrew Ragai Henry Rigit 1 , Nicholas Kuan Hoo Tien 1 , Shanti Faridah Saleh 2 , Amir Azam Khan 1* 1 Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia 2 Department of Chemical Engineering & Energy Sustainability Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia * E-mail: akamir@feng.unimas.my ABSTRACT There is an enormous demand for Composites and Hybrid materials as many of the well-established materials, such as metals, ceramics or plastics cannot fulfil all technological desires for the various new applications. Sol–gel process has been extensively studied for several decades as a method to prepare Composites and Hybrid materials. This paper presents a review on the basic concepts related to sol-gel chemistry, major factors affecting the reaction kinetics and surface modification of silica network with organofunctionalized groups for the preparation of homogeneous composites. The ORMOCERS based composites have numerous applications, notably when grafted with heterocyclic amines. The insertion of organometallic precursors in sol-gel process to get transition metal embedded ORMOCERS subsequently grafted with heterocylic amines are proposed in this work. These composites and hybrid materials are expected to be optically active within the visible range. These can be eventually used as optical brighteners and dyes in the textile industry. Key words: Sol-Gel, ORMOCERS, Hybrid Materials 1. Introduction Nanotechnology is continuously growing through all the fields related to science and technology such as materials, electronic, aerospace, defence, medical, and dental etc. This technology comprises design, synthesis, characterization, and application of material and devices on the nanometre scale [1]. Composites and Hybrid material can show superior properties as compared with their pure counterparts. Properties of these organic and inorganic composites are in between the two original phases or even exhibit new properties. Such materials are lightweight with advanced mechanical properties [2]. Among the inorganic nanoscale building blocks, SiO2 are viewed as being very important. Advancement in nanotechnology has led to the production of nanosized silica, which is pure and produced mostly in amorphous powder form as compared to natural mineral silica which are in crystalline forms and contain impurities and not suitable for advanced scientific and industrial applications [3]. Recently numerous methods were explored and successfully used to produce Organically modified Ceramics (ORMOCERS) as well as organic-inorganic hybrid materials. The sol-gel process is widely used to produce pure silica particles, ORMOCERS as well as hybrid materials due to its ability to control the particle size, size distribution and morphology through systematic monitoring of reaction parameters. 2. Sol-Gel Process The sol-gel process is a wet-chemical technique widely used in the fields of materials science and ceramic engineering at low temperature. The sol-gel technique, as a tool, to produce silica glass was reported for the first time in 1846 by Ebelmen, when he obtained a solid matter by slow hydrolysis of ester of silicic acid. Sol–gel process is chemically related to an organic polycondensation reaction in which fabrication of materials (typically metal oxides) starting from a colloidal solution (sol) that acts as the precursor for an integrated network (or gel) of either discrete particles or network polymers takes place [4].