Sol-gel derived sorbents

A method for producing copolymerized sol-gel derived sorbent particles comprising the steps of:

• a) providing a homogeneous aqueous metal alkoxide mixture comprising at least two different metal alkoxides;
• b) adding a sufficient amount of a basic solution to said aqueous metal alkoxide mixture to hydrolyze said metal alkoxides, said mixture having a pH≦8;
• c) allowing the mixture of step b) to copolymerize at room temperature, forming a copolymerized metal alkoxide mixture for a pre-calculated period of time for said mixture to undergo an increase in viscosity per said pre-calculation so to obtain a desired pore size and surface area;
• d) heating a nonpolar solvent to a temperature sufficient enough for said copolymerized metal alkoxide mixture of step c) to form a solid upon addition to said heated nonpolar solvent, said nonpolar solvent being immiscible with said copolymerized metal alkoxide mixture;
• e) adding said copolymerized metal alkoxide mixture of step c) to said heated nonpolar solvent wherein said copolymerized metal alkoxide mixture forms a solid upon addition to said heated nonpolar solvent;
• and
• f) recovering said solid from said mixture of step e), said solid being a nonpolar copolymerized sol-gel derived sorbent.