Within this thesis the principle and application of induction heating will be introduced and the synthesis of magnetic materials, specifically ferrite type materials, via sol-gel methods reported. It is shown that the optimized ferrites demonstrated both excellent catalytic and induction heating properties which can be applied to various reactions. The reaction range can even be extended if magnetic materials are coated with other catalytically active components. Another possible solution which is discussed is the combination of induction heating of bulk metal materials which have been physically blended with an active catalyst. These inductively heated particles then transfer the reaction heat to the surrounding catalyst particles thereby assisting the reaction. The main example used is the oxidative ethylbenzene dehydrogenation reaction. This has been intensively studied over past number of decades as styrene is one of the most useful intermediate compounds for organic synthesis. The combination of induction heating with catalytically active magnetic materials will be introduced here and compared to traditional thermal heating. It will be shown that less deactivation was obtained under induction heating when using CoFe2O4 as a dual functional catalyst. The thesis concludes with an overall discussion and some personal views on potential future directions for this work.