“…Furthermore, its chemical inertness and insulating features favor the exploitation of SiO 2 in a plethora of technological applications [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Among these, SiO 2 is widely applied in nanocomposite formulations (as filler) [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], industrial catalysis (as substrate) [ 37 , 38 , 39 ], wastewater remediation processes (as adsorbent) [ 40 , 41 ], as a building material component [ 42 , 43 ], and in different advanced biomedical applications (e.g., as a drug-carrier system) [ 44 , 45 , 46 ]. At the laboratory scale, the typical precursors of SiO 2 are alkoxysilanes, such as tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), or tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMSO), largely adopted in synthetic protocols following the sol-gel method [ 47 , 48 , 49 ].…”