Organic-inorganic hybrid glassy materials and their production processes

A process for producing an organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material, comprising the steps of:

• (a) mixing together sol-gel starting materials;
• (b) heating a product of the mixing step to conduct a reaction of the sol-gel starting materials;
• (c) melting a product of the heating step into a melted liquid;
• and
• (d) aging the melted liquid into the organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material,
• wherein
• the sol-gel starting materials comprise first and second metal alkoxides as raw materials of the organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material,
• the first metal alkoxide produces a D unit in the organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material,
• the second metal alkoxide produces at least one chemical unit selected from the group consisting of T3, T2 and T1 units in the organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material,
• so that the organic-inorganic hybrid glassy material has a ratio of D unit to (D unit+T3 unit+T2 unit+T1 unit) from 0.05 to 0.50,
• wherein,
• the D unit is a chemical unit in which, of the four bonds which can be made to a silicon atom, excluding two bonds to which organic substituents are bonded, either both or one of the remaining bonds is bonded to another silicon atom through an oxygen atom;
• the T3 unit is a chemical unit in which, of the four bonds which can be made to a silicon atom, excluding one bond to which an organic substituent is bonded, all three of the remaining bonds are bonded to other silicon atoms through oxygen atoms;
• the T2 unit is a chemical unit in which, of the four bonds which can be made to a silicon atom, excluding one bond to which an organic substituent is bonded, two of the three remaining bonds are bonded to other silicon atoms through oxygen atoms, and
• the T1 unit is a chemical unit in which, of the four bonds which can be made to a silicon atom, excluding one bond to which an organic substituent is bonded, one of the three remaining bonds is bonded to another silicon atom through an oxygen atom.