taken as a limitation upon the overall scope of the invention magnesium methoxide was prepared by dissolving mg metal ribbon fisher in methanol a 1 m solution was prepared by the reaction of 4 86 g 0 20 mol mg with 206 ml methanol under nitrogen flow at room temperature after completion of the reaction the reaction vessel was sealed and stored at room temperature for future use in the synthesis of mg oh 2 aerogels for preparation of modified mgo aerogels magnesium methoxide solution obtained via the first step was diluted with a desired amount of methanol and or other solvent e g toluene organic modifying agents and hydrolysis water were dissolved in 10 ml methanol each then the solution of the first modifying agent was quickly poured into the reaction vessel with magnesium methoxide and the resulting mixture was stirred for 10 min if two modifying agents were used the second one was added following a similar procedure finally a stoichiometric amount of hydrolysis water dissolved in methanol was added the reaction vessel was continuously maintained under nitrogen flow during the whole reaction the gel formed after adding water was stirred overnight with a magnetic stir bar unless a solid gel was obtained in the latter case the gel was aged overnight without stirring the amounts of solvents were adjusted to provide a pressure of about 7000 kpa at the end of the autoclave treatment.