Sol-gel derived composite silica-carbon electrodes exhibit favorableelectrochemical characteristics. The electrodes benefit from theconductivity and electrochemical advantages of the carbon powder, from thefavorable properties of the ceramic network and from the versatility of thesol-gel process. Hydrophobie composite electrodes reject water, only theiroutermost surface is wetted and they exhibit good signal to backgroundcurrents. A comparison of several types of carbon powders reveals thathigher carbon loading and larger surface area electrodes can be attained byincorporation of dense graphite powder. When high surface area, small sizecarbon-black powder is used, a homogeneous distribution of microelectrodes,separated by insulating modified silica is formed. This ensemble ofmicroelectrodes increases the sensitivity of the CCEs by more than twoorders of magnitude as compared to glassy carbon electrode and graphiteCCEs.