The synthesis of the MCM-41 materials with novel hollowtubular morphology in highalkaline condition was studied in detail. The tubular structurecan be obtained in a narrowrange of water/C
16TMAB molar ratio, in which lamellarmembranes consisting of thehexagonal arrangement of rod micelles exist. Tubular structuresresult from a membrane-to-tubules transformation. Adding a proper amount of salts into thesynthesis gel of higherwater/C
16TMAB molar ratio can help forming tubularstructure. Temperature of the reactionsystem has to be controlled near 30
C in order to obtain the tubularMCM-41. Incorporationof aluminum into the framework affects the morphology and crystallinityof resultant MCM-41 products. But the stirring rate does not have an appreciableeffect on the formation oftubular morphology. The sample synthesized with theC
16TMACl-silicate system with asuitable water content leads to about 70% in tubular morphology, andthe hexagonal structureof MCM-41 channels was formed from a lamellar intermediate.Surfactants with shortercarbon chain length (
n < 16) would inhibit the formation oftubular morphology. The productof the C
12TMAB-silicate system was in particulateform and that of C
14TMAB-silicate inbroken tubular morphology.