“…What appears to be a rather straightforward process is indeed a very complex phenomenon and neither experiments nor computer simulation have clarified why the surface of an amorphous silica sample heated at high T (>1000 K) will not return to the pristine situation after water adsorption of the thermally treated material, whereas this happens for lower treatment temperatures. 32,33 Despite its being such a common material, the synthesis of silica, either in gaseous phase as pyrogenic silica or in solution, has only been achieved on the first half of the 20 th century, with the development of the sol-gel synthesis technique. 13 Starting from the 1960s, silica materials have become the subject of intense academic research and industrial application.…”