Large-pore three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous silicas are among the most interesting mesoporous materials discovered in recent years, and they have attracted much attention for potential applications requiring easily accessible, uniform and large pores. Examples of these are SBA-15 (p6 mm) and SBA-16 (Im3m), which have cylindrical- and cage-type structures, respectively. It has been reported that hexagonally ordered large-pore mesoporous SBA-15 silica made by using a block copolymer contains complementary pores, while such pores were not found in MCM-41 with the same 2D hexagonal p6 mm symmetry [1 - 4]. These complementary pores are arranged in a disordered way between the hexagonally ordered large pore channels. The mesoporous silica with a bicontinuous cubic structure of Ia3d symmetry is composed of an enantiomeric pair of 3D mesoporous networks that are interwoven, as observed in the MCM-48 structure [4]. In this report, we have successfully synthesized silicas Ia3d as supportant material for catalyst CoO and estimated it’s catalytic activity in the oxygenation reaction of benzylalchhol.
