Disclosed herein is a sol-gel polymerization process for synthesizing
metal-doped organic gels. The process polymerizes metal salts of
hydroxylated benzenes or hydroxylated benzene derivatives with alkyl or
aryl aldehydes to form metal-doped, wet, organic gels. The gels can then
be dried by supercritical solvent extraction to form metal-doped aerogels
or by evaporation to form metal-doped xerogels. The aerogels and xerogels
can then be pyrolyzed.