The ordered silicon oxynitride mesoporous materials with nitrogen content 23.01 wt%, BET surface area 665.4 m²•g^－1 and mean pore size 2.5 nm were successfully prepared by controlling nitridation process parameters. The changes in composition and structure of the silicon oxynitride MCM-41 were investigated by means of elemental analysis, nitrogen sorption measurements, low-angle XRD, Si MAS NMR, IR spectra and high-resolution TEM. The resulting materials showed high activity toward the Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with malononitrile and the yield reached 99.9% after reacting for 3 h at 30 ℃, which often acts as a probing reaction for base catalysis.

Key words: silicon oxynitride, ordered mesoporous material, MCM-41, base catalysis