Because of their high mechanical, thermal and chemical stability, variable manufacturing of pore sizes with a small pore size distribution and variety of surface modifications, a wide array of applications are possible. The fact that porous glasses can be produced in many different shapes is another advantage for application in industry, medicine, pharmacy research, biotechnology and sensor technology.
Porous glasses are ideal for material separation, because of the small pore size distribution. This is why they are used in gas chromatography, thin layer chromatography and affinity chromatography. An adaptation of stationary phase for a separation problem is possible by a specific modification of the surface of the porous glass.
In biotechnology, porous glasses have benefits for the cleaning of DNA and the immobilization of enzymes or microorganisms. Controlled pore glass (CPG) with pore sizes between 50 and 300 nm is also excellently suited for the synthesis of oligonucleotides. In this application, a linker, a nucleoside or a non-nucleosidic compound, is first attached to the surface of CPG. The chain length of produced oligonucleotides is dependent on the pore size of CPG.
In addition, porous glasses are used for manufacturing implants, especially dental implants, for which porous glass powder is processed with plastics to form a composite. The particle size and the pore size influence the elasticity of the composite so as to fit the optical and mechanical properties to surrounding tissue, for example, the appearance and hardness of dental enamel.
With the ability to form porous glasses as platelets, membrane technology is another important area of application. Hyper filtration of sea – and brackish water and ultra filtration in "downstream process" are but two. Additionally, they are often appropriate as a carrier for catalysts. For example, the olefin – metathesis was realized on the system metal – metal oxide/porous glass.
Porous glasses can be used as membrane reactors as well, again because of their high mechanical, thermal and chemical stability. Membrane reactors can improve conversion of limited balance reactions, while one reaction product is removed by a selective membrane. For example, in the decomposition of hydrogen sulfide on a catalyst in a glass capillary, the conversion by reaction was higher with glass capillary than without.