Sol-Gel processing methods have been extensively developed in the last century for applications such as glasses, ceramics, catalysts, coatings, composites and fibres. Today they are reaching their full potential, enabling the preparation of new generations of advanced materials not easily accessible by other methods yet using mild, low-energy conditions. This concise text is suitable as an introduction to the development, mechanisms, chemistry, characterisation methods and applications of the technique. It provides an extensive yet concise grounding in the theory of each area of the subject and details the real and potential applications and the future prospects of sol-gel chemistry.