Porous pure and doped silicas with pore sizes at two length scales (meso/macroporous) have been prepared and shaped both as powders and monoliths through a one-pot surfactant assisted procedure by using a simple template agent and starting from atrane complexes as inorganic precursors.

Nanosized Ti-UVM-7 materials with a hierarchical system of pores at two different length scales have been prepared through a one-pot procedure by using a simple template agent; the catalytic activity and selectivity of the resulting materials in bulky olefin epoxidation by organic peroxides are the highest reported to date.