Recently the sol-gel synthesis of biomaterials has been extensively studied owing to the significant advantages of this method. The room temperature synthesis, the metal-organic precusors and organic solvents, as well as the possibility of controlling the chemical conditions of the sol-gel process allow the introduction of organic and bioorganic molecules within the inorganic network. In the present study, results on sol-gel synthesis and structure of hybrid materials containing silica and chitosan are described and discussed. Four different types of silicon precursors are used: TEOS, TMOS, MTES and ETMS. The hybrids were prepared by replacing different quantity of the inorganic precursor with the organic component chitosan. The structure of the obtained hybrid materials was studied by FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, NMR, AFM, BET and SEM.
