Abstract: Use of an aqueous silica sol for obtaining a stabilized pickled white or a stabilized white from a hide, in particular by treatment of a hide at a pH between 1 and 8, at ambient temperature, in an aqueous or brine bath with a density between 1.014 and 1.09, with an aqueous silica sol containing by weight 10 to 50% silica in the form of discrete particles, not linked together by siloxane bonds and having an average diameter between 3 and 100 nm, and process for obtaining a pickled white.

Abstract: Process for obtaining by sol-gel route refractory metal oxides based on silica in which a monolithic gel is prepared, in an aqueous medium, at a temperature of less than 60.degree. C., by leaving at rest an aqueous sol obtained by simple mixing in stoichiometric quantities of an aqueous sol of silicic acid and of one or more aqueous solutions of a water-soluble salt of one or more other constitutive metals of these oxides, then the monolithic gel obtained is calcined at a temperature of less than 1000.degree. C. after it has been dried at a temperature of less than 150.degree. C.