This work reports the investigation of the characteristics of catalysts produced by the sol gel process. Our analysis focuses on the properties related to heterogeneous catalysis, such as methane steam reforming, dry reforming, hydrogenation of organic compositions. Alumina, silica and titania based materials doped with Ni were synthesized. The characterization techniques used were: temperature programmed reduction, thermogravimetric analysis, specific surface area and X-ray powder diffraction. The specific surface area values obey the following sequence: Ni–SiO 2 >Ni–Al 2 O 3 >Ni–TiO 2 . The temperature programmed reduction indicated that in the Ni–SiO 2 sample, the nickel oxide is present in two different forms on the surface; the Ni–Al 2 O 3 material presented one peak at high temperature, suggesting the presence of a nickel aluminate form. However, Ni–TiO 2 did not present reduction peaks. The thermogravimetric analysis, which was performed under inert atmosphere, showed the decomposition of the organic residues adsorbed on surface. The X-ray powder diffraction patterns of calcined materials showed two crystalline forms for TiO 2 in Ni–TiO 2 rutile and anatase. In Ni–Al 2 O 3 , crystalline areas composed of α-Al 2 O 3 , γ-Al 2 O 3 and NiO were observed and finally for Ni–SiO 2 , amorphous areas and NiO were found.