Patent ID: 6972301

Claim:
A process for treating a metal oxide comprising: forming an aqueous slurry of a metal oxide, said slurry containing from 1 to 40% by wt. metal oxide, said metal oxide being susceptible to peptization in the presence of an acid; mixing with said aqueous slurry an organo silane having the formula R y SiX 4-y , wherein R is an organic moiety, X is an organic grouping which produces an acid anion in the presence of water and y is from 1 to 3 and provided that where y is 2 or 3, R can be 2 or 3 of the same organic moiety or 2 or 3 different organic moieties; and subjecting the mixture of said aqueous slurry and said organo silane to hydrothermal aging to produce an organically modified colloidal metal oxide sol.