Hybrid materials are comprised of inorganic and organic building blocks.  Such materials can reflect the properties of multiple individual components to create a material that is better suited to an application than its parts.  Representative hybrid materials from living organisms include bone, teeth and shells.  In man-made hybrids such as fiberglass (a filled polymer matrix) the combination of hard (inorganic) and soft (organic) materials leads to properties combining the strength of inorganics with the toughness of organics. Paints are another example of a functional hybrid: inorganic pigments and fillers are mixed with organic polymers, solvents and surfactants to provide inorganic properties (color) to a spreadable, adhesive product. 

Identical materials can have very different properties in bulk versus nanoscale dimensions.  This phenomenon also occurs with hybrid materials. For example, dispersion of nano-particles throughout a macroscopic matrix material often results in nanocomposites with unusual properties.

Modern techniques allow new combinations of materials at nanoscale dimensions.  Application of these  techniques permit the design of entirely new classes of functional materials that have no analogue in the natural world

HST uses sol–gel chemistry to create inorganic–organic hybrid materials. The name sol-gel derives from the reaction of precursor molecules (metal alkoxides) in an aqueous solution with catalyst to form very small particles (known as sols), or cross-link into macroscopic networks known as gels depending on reaction conditions.