Spherical particles of titanium dioxide and poly( dimethylsiloxane) hybrid have been synthesized from titanium tetraisopropoxide and methoxy-functionalized poly( dimethylsiloxane) by a co-precipitation method. The refractive index of the hybrid particles exhibits a linear relationship with the titanium dioxide content. These hybrid particles have elastic properties. The nano structures of the products were characterized by TEM, XRD, IR, UV-Vis. spectroscopy and HAADF-STEM. The hybrids have an islet-like nano-structure, which consisted of titanium dioxide and PDMS domains in the nanometer size range. (C) 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.