Aerogels are low-density, lightweight, porous, foam-like materials that have a variety of applications. When these materials are impregnated with metals such as platinum group metals (PGMs), they have promise for catalytic performance. Catalytic aerogels are a potential alternative to lower the use of PGMs in catalytic converters in automobiles with internal combustion engines. PGMs are costly and mining and processing of these materials have detrimental environmental effects. PGMs are applied in a wash coat to the ceramic honeycomb of the catalytic converter to maximize the amount of reactive surface area and are used to perform exhaust cleaning reactions. Catalytic aerogels have been used in multiple gas-phase reactions due to the high surface area that provides an increased amount of active sites for the reaction. Moreover, alumina aerogels are stable at high temperatures. Recently, the Union College Aerogel Lab has prepared PGM-containing catalytic aerogels and xerogels by doping commercially available PGM nanoparticles into alumina matrices. These PGM-containing materials have demonstrated catalytic ability in experiments conducted with a catalytic testbed (constructed in-house), in which a simulated exhaust blend is passed over the material at a controlled temperature and flow rate. To better evaluate the performance of the PGM-containing catalytic aerogels, reference materials were fabricated by impregnating PGMs introduced in the form of water-soluble salts onto a commercial (non-aerogel) alumina support. Samples of the reference materials and the aerogels were characterized using FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy), XRD (x-ray diffraction), and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) to investigate changes in structure during fabrication, after heat treatment, and after catalytic testing. Details of the material preparation, physical characterization, and catalytic performance will be presented.