This review describes mechanisms of catalytic reactions leading to mono- and dialkyl benzenes over zeolites, which represent an important part of petrochemical products. The emphasis is given to the effect of the type of acid sites, zeolite structure, and reaction conditions on the activity and selectivity of these complex reactions, and particularly to the individual products with respect to their iso- vs. n- and ortho-, meta-, and para-isomers. The first part of the paper deals with the description and analysis of the structure and properties of the acid sites, and zeolite pore inner structure applied in synthesis of alkyl benzenes. Individual reactions leading to the synthesis of propyl benzene, xylenes, ethyl toluenes, diethyl benzenes, and transformation of trimethyl benzenes to xylenes from the view point of the reaction mechanism, function of the acid sites, and inner pore geometry of zeolites are described in the second part.

This article covers the recent development in the remarkably growing field of synthesis, characterization and particularly catalytic investigation of zeolite‐based materials combining micro‐ and mesoporous features. New synthetic approaches for preparation of micro/mesoporous composites including recrystallization of originally amorphous matter, utilization of nanocrystalline zeolite seeds and formation of mesoporous zeolite single crystals are the first focus of this article. The advantages and disadvantages of composite materials in comparison with pure micro‐ and mesoporous molecular sieves will be discussed, as well. The relevance of individual experimental techniques for analysis of the composites, i.e., their structure, porosity, chemical composition, morphological features, and so on, are described in the second section of the article. The last Section is focused on the application of micro/mesoporous composites and mesoporous zeolites as catalysts in acid‐catalyzed reactions, oxidation reactions and synthesis of fine chemicals. The potential of the composites in challenging areas of catalysis for future applications is the final objective of the review.